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A GUIDE 



RIPON, HARKOGATE, FOUNTAINS 
ABBEY, BOLTON PRIORY, 



SEVERAL PLACES OF INTEREST IN THEIR VICINITY. 



JOHN EICHARD AVALBEAN, 

Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiqup.ries of Scotland ; Honorary Member of tbc Society 

of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tj'ne ; and Local Secretary of the Arclia'nb'gical 

Institute of Great Kritain and Jreland. 



jFiftfj aSHitimu 



EIPON: ^"^ 

PUBLISHED BY W. HARRISON, MARKET-PLACE ; 

MESSRS. BRADBURY & EVANS; MESSRS. SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., 
LONDON. 

185L 



LONDON : 
BRADBURY AND EVANS, FEINTERS, WHITEFKIARS. 



\ oa5o 



-QZ 



CONTENTS. 



The initial letters at pp. 14, 24, 56, 63, 94, 96, 99, and 113, are facsimiles from a 
Chartulary of Fountains, written about the dose of the fourteenth century. 



AiLCY Hill 5 

Aldfield Spa 90 

Barden Bbidge, Chapel, and Tower 126 

Bolton Pkioey 113 

Bam 128 

Bridge and Chapel . . . . 115 

Chapter-house .... 123 

Churchyard 124 

Cloister Court 123 

Close 123 

Conventual Church . . . 117 

Dormitory 123 

Gate-house 115 

Holm-terrace 128 

Lodge 123 

Mill 124 

Park 126 

Strid 124 

White Doe of Rylstone . . . 124 

Bolton Hall . . . . 115 

Bolton Woods 128 

Brimham Rocks 94 

EiiBSAY Priory 114 

Fountains Abbey, List of Abhots . 67 

Abbot's House .... 86 

Brewhouse 83 

Buttery 84 

Bridge 69 

Cellar 83 

Chapter-house . ... . . 79 

Church 71 

Cloister 70 

Cloister Court .... 78 

Close 68 

Court-house 83 

Coins, discovery of . . . . 83 

Dissolution of 65 

Dormitory 71 

Frater-house 83 

Gard-robes 71, 86 

Gatehouse 69 

Historical notice of . . . . 63 

Hospitium 70 

Infirmary 70 



Fountains Abb-ey— continued. 

Kitchen 84 

Library 81 

Mill 68 

Muniment Room .... 84 

OflBces 68 

Orchards 68 

Owners of 65 

Park 68 

Pavements . . . . 76, 89 

Prisons 85 

Ponds 68 

Refectory 85 

Scriptorium 81 

Yew Trees 69 

Fountains Hall 69 

Hackfall 96 

Halikeld 3 

Harrogate 99 

Balls 112 

Baths Ill 

Churches and Chapels . . . 101 
Harlow Carr and Tower . 109, 111 

Hospital Ill 

Hotels 112 

Origin of 99 

Recreation 112 

Victoria Rooms 112 

Wells, Cheltenham . . .107 

Crown 106 

Montpellier . . . 105 

Montpellier Cheltenham . 108 

■ Starbeck . . . . 106 

Sulphur . . . .103 

Sweet 103 

Tepid 102 

Walker's Saline . . . 108 

How-Hill and Chapel ... 61 

Hutton, Celtic Temples and Barrows 

at 3 

Knaresborodgh Forest . . 99, 115 

Laver River 17 

LiNDKICK 4 



IV 



Page 

Makkenfield Hall . . . 92 

Arms of Markenfield ... 93 

Tombs 93 

NiDD River 95 

Skell River ... 9, 17, 57, 86 

Studley Hall 57 

Gardens 58 

Park 57 

Robin Hood, his well ... 63 

Thornbrough, Celtic Temples at . . 3 

RiPON, Abbey of 18 

Bathing-house 54 

Canal 54 

Cathedral, Historical Notices of . 24 

Survey of 31 

Chapel of our Lady . . . . 22 

Chapels, Dissenting ... 53 

Church, New 50 

College of Vicars .... 49 

College, Projected . . . . 28 
Corporation, Municipal . 10, 14 

Court-house 49 

Common 2, 50 

Cross, Market 18 

Dispensary 54 

Fairs 18 

Gas Works 54 



Page 

RipoN — continued. 

Hospitals 52 

Local Government ... 14 

Liberty of 14 

Library, Public .... 53 

Limekilns 17 

Manor 6, 14 

Manufactures at . . . . 8, 15 

JIarkets 16 

Market-place 18 

Mechanics' Institution ... 53 
Palace and Park of Archbishop of 

York 7, 49 

Palace of Bishop of Ripon . . 51 

Population 54 

Races 16 

Rooms, Public 53 

Sanctuary 21 

School, Grammar . . . . 53 

National .... 54 

Town Hall 53 

Water Works .... 54 
Wells 54 

Roman Rigg 4 



Ure River ... 2, 17, 96 
Watling-Street .... 4 
Wiiarfe and Wharfedale . . 118 




KIPON, FROM THE STUDLEY LIMEKILNS. 



RIPON. 




HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 

F all the divisions of our favoured island, the 
County of York has pre-eminent claims to 
the attention of that numerous class of the 
community who delight in reviewing the 
abundant beauties of their own insufficiently 
appreciated country. Compnsing an area 
sufficient for a principality, meted by great 
natural features, containing the proudest 
memorials of ancient piety and chivalry, as well as the most 
diversified and ingenious applications of modern science, it is, in 
itself, an epitome of the kingdom, and needs not the aid of its 
peculiar natural beauties to allure those who are uncertain whither 
to direct their steps with the greatest certainty of enjoyment. 

There is however, unfortunately, another class of persons who are 
tempted to this particular part of the kingdom, not so much from 
inclination as necessity. Its mineral springs and salubrious climate 
offer a most powerful remedial influence to those for whom restora- 
tion to health would be the greatest earthly blessing. And it is not 



2 KIPOK. 

less singular than fortunate that the central portion of the county, 
which is thus chiefly resorted to, has, within the compass of moderate 
excursions, an unusual variety of most interesting objects, by the 
inspection of which the mind may be refreshed and engaged, whilst 
physical strength is invigorated or attained. 

It is on this account that the vicinity of Ripon is particularly 
deserving of consideration to those who would thoroughly enjoy 
their visit to Harrogate. Situated on the immediate verge of that 
" Yorkshire plain," of which the competent judgment of Bancroft 
has affirmed the like is not to be seen on this side the Alps, yet 
elevated gently above commingling streams, on the last slope of the 
great western hills, its landscape scenery comprehends all those 
features on which a lover of the cultivated aspect of Nature loves to 
dwell, — pervaded everywhere by a feeling of order, tranquillity, and 
continuance, and enriched by those associations and memorials inci- 
dent to a bye-past centre of progress and civilisation. 

To the consideration of these monuments, and of the institutions 
which originated them, the greater part of the following pages will 
necessarily be devoted ; and seldom may he who recognises, even 
in local history, " philosophy teaching by example," observe a more 
diversified series and intelligible development of those elements 
which have produced our present social and political condition. 

As early, indeed, as shelter for himself and pasturage for his 
cattle were among the most pressing necessities of uncivilised man, 
it is evident that the advantageous position of this place would often 
induce its temporary occupation, and several conical pits on the 
"High Common" have been considered the site of these dwellings. 
Yet — even in this migratory and unsettled period — we have far 
more direct and conclusive evidence, that the immediate vicinity of 
Ripon was regarded with peculiar interest and veneration ; since one 
of the tribes of the Brigantian Celts had chosen it as their station 
for the dispensation of justice and the celebration of religious rites ; 
in fact, had made it the seat of their government. This position — 
novel as it may be — is, I believe, sufficiently proved.by a remarkable 
earth-work on the high land near " Blows Hall," commanding ex- 
tensive prospects up and down the Vale of lire, as well as of the 
distant ranges of hills M^hich form the side screens of the great York- 
shire plain. Like Abury and Stonehenge, which it rivals in anti- 
quity, its outline is that of a circle, of which the diameter is not less 
than 680 feet ; but no stones remain, nor indeed does that material 
seem to have been used in its formation. Though recent agricul- 



HISTORICAL INTEODirCTIOK. ^ 

tural operations have partially effaced the regularity and proportion 
of its plan, it is sufficiently evident that it was enclosed by a lofty 
mound and corresponding trench — the latter being inside, and a 
platform or space about thirty feet wide intervening. This opinion, 
however, may be reduced to certainty, by inspection of the three 
similar temples at Thornbrough, near Tanfield, about six miles 
hence, one of which remains perfect. At two opposite points, 
bearing nearly north and south, the mound and trench, for about 
the space of twenty-five feet, have been discontinued, in order to 
form an approach to the area of the temple. Outside the mound, 
also, are some slight vestiges of a further avenue, but too indefinite 
to be traced. But, however obscure the denotation of its several 
parts may have become, the antiquity and purpose of the place, as a 
temple for the performance of Druidical rites, is satisfactorily ascer- 
tained by the existence of at least eight large Celtic barrows in its 
immediate vicinity ; one of which, being on the very ridge of the 
vale, and planted with fir trees, forms a conspicuous and useful 
object to guide a stranger to the site. Two of these barrows were 
opened five years ago, but I found nothing but a few calcined human 
bones, the ashes of the oaken funeral pile, and some fragments of 
flint arrow-heads, such as are still used by the North-American 
Indians. Several bronze spear-heads and celts have, however, been 
found in the neighbourhood, within recollection. 

There is, unfortunately, no access to the earth- work by a public 
path ; but its situation is rendered visible, from the high road 
leading fi-om Ripon to Rainton, by the presence of two small pyi-a- 
mids or obelisks, built on the mound of the temple, about fifty years 
ago, in the place, it is said, of two similar erections, apparently of 
high antiquity. 

It may not be unreasonable to believe, that a spring which rises in 
a piece of enclosed ground, called " Halikeld Field," about midway 
between this earth-work and the village of Melmerby, was the 
^'fons sacer''' necessary for the due performance of Druidical rites ; 
and, in the absence of all direct evidence, may, by its consequent 
pre-eminent sanctity, be supposed to have given a name, in Saxon 
times, to the Wapentake of Halikeld, in which both it and the earth- 
work are situated. " Hailekelde landes," in Melmerby, are men- 
tioned in charters of the thirteenth century. 

Besides the remains of the temple, several evidences of the Celtic 
occupation of the immediate neighbourhood of Ripon have been 
found in the shape of celts, Druid beads, and fragments of coarse 



b2 



4 BIPON. 

pottery ware. The most interesting object, however, is a splendid 
golden torque, found about thirty years ago near Studley Hall, con- 
cealed between two large stones, which had probably once formed a 
portion of the substratum of a barrow. Within 640 yards of this 
place, and near some broken ground in Lindrick farm, was also 
found a large sword of bronze, which the discoverer — inheriting the 
spirit of the age when it had been fabricated — immediately threw 
away, lest, as he sagely averred, he might be bewitched by its 
possession. 

The few opportunities that have favoured investigation of the 
soil have not presented proof that there was any considerable settle- 
ment, either on the site or in the immediate vicinity of Ripon, 
during the Roman period ; though its position, on a lingiila of land 
declining between two converging rivers, and its proximity to their 
city of Isurium, may induce the idea that it was not entirely 
unoccupied by that people. Indeed, among the papers of the learned 
Gale, was the sketch of a tesselated pavement of that period, which 
was discovered here ; and a small vase of Roman workmanship — 
now in my possession — was found not many years ago at the depth 
of seven feet, on the west side of the " Horsefair." But these 
indicia, with a few silver and copper coins, dating from the reign 
of Vespasian to that of Constantino, turned up in and near the 
streets, comprehend, at present, all the evidence I can offer on the 
subject. The great Roman road, which here retained its name of 
" Watling Strete" in the thirteenth century, passed the site of 
Ripon, at the distance of three miles, on the east ; and a vicinal 
way still called "Roman Rigg" — stretching towards the exploratory 
camp behind Hackfall — may be traced through Lindrick farm to 
the river Laver, at an equal distance on the west side of the city. 

Descending now to the period when written evidence imparts the 
assurance of detail and dates to our narration, we find that, as early 
as the seventh century, the industry of Saxon agriculturists was 
rewarded here by the fertility of the Vale of Ure. Alchfrid, king of 
Deira, or the southern portion of the kingdom of ^Jprthumbria, was 
lord of the soil, and here, about the year 660, bestowed on Eata, 
abbot of Melrose, a portion of ground whereon to erect a monastic 
foundation. 

It is probable, notwithstanding, that the village which conse- 
quently arose might have remained in the same insignificant con- 
dition which was the doom of many places where monasteries were 
founded in the Saxon times, if it had not happened that, on the 



HISTOEICAL INTRODUCTION. 5 

expulsion of the Scottish monies^ king Alchfrid gave the monastery 
to one Wilfrid, a learned, enthusiastic, and pious character, who 
had been his tutor, and who ever after regarded the place with 
peculiar affection. With the monastery was bestowed the lands 
appurtenant to thirty, or, as some write, forty dwellings, being 
probably the whole adjacent territory which was then brought into 
cultivation. After Wilfrid was elevated to the see of York, he re- 
built this monastery with all the superior elegance and taste he had 
acquired during his sojourn in Italy and foreign lands, and by his 
patronage and exertions, unquestionably, the huts that had been 
reared round the oratory of the holy fathers became the centre of 
civilisation to the circumadjacent country, and the earliest germ of 
the future town. 

The silence of the early chronicles allows us to hope that there 
was peace at Ripon during the warfare and brutal devastation that 
prevailed in the north during the eighth and ninth centuries. 
According, however, to some indefinite accounts, it shared this cruel 
fate towards the close of the latter period, for about the year 860, 
when the Danes were ravaging the country with insatiable fury, they 
are said to have razed the town to the ground, and done much injury 
to the monastery. 

There remains, indeed, to our own day, a monument of some 
dreadful carnage that occurred here awhile after. This is a large 
conical tumulus at the east side of the town, about a bow shot from 
the cathedral, composed throughout of sand, gravel, and human 
bones, mingled in that indiscriminate manner that would occur when 
the victims of the battle-field were hastily collected in one vast 
mound that served alike as their memorial and their tomb. The 
teeth and bones of horses, too, have been found in quantities within 
a short distance around its base. This singular and mysterious 
object, which was called in Leland's time Ilshow, but now Ailcy 
Hill, measures about three hundred yards in circumference at its 
base, and about seventy in sloping height. Etymologists have con- 
nected its name , with a presumption that Ella, the Northumbrian 
king, fought, or was subsequently slain here in 867, and that he, or 
those who fell with him, were deposited in a how or hill that was 
designated by his name. The fact of his death having occurred 
here is, however, clearly disproved by several ancient chroniclers,* 
who state that he fell with king Osbert, at York ; and the Saxon 

* Chron. Sax. ed. Wheloc p. 532. Asserij Annales XV Scrip. 159. 



EIPON. 

personal appellation of Elsi harmonises better with the vulgar pro- 
nunciation, which has been immemorially " Ailcy." Still its own 
internal evidence has proved that it was thrown up in, or very 
shortly after, Ella's time, for, in digging in the hill, which, until the 
late enclosure of the common where it stood, was used as a gravel 
pit, there was found, in the early part of 1695, several stycas of 
Osbert and Ella, Ethelred, Eanred, and Aelred. Within memory 
many have also been found in the hill ; but, through ignorance of 
their value, have been all dispersed or lost. 

Hitherto, the soil of Ripon may have been possessed by the suc- 
cessive monarchs of Northumbria, with the exception of what had 
been given by them to Wilfrid and his monastery ; if the statement 
— believed as early as 1280* — is correct, that Athelstane, who 
reigned from 925 to 940, gave the Manor of Ripon to Wolstan, 
Archbishop of York. Yet littls reliance can be placed on the 
mediaeval interpretation of a Saxon grant, and the truth, as suggested 
both by the authentic portion of the charters of Athelstane, printed 
in the '' Monasticon,"t as well as by the petition of Archbishop 
Bowet to Parliament, in 1415,^ seems rather to be, that Athelstane, 
when he came with his army to Ripon, on his expedition against the 
Scots, vowed, that, if it should prove successful, he would endow 
the churches of York, Ripon, and Beverley, with profitable pri- 
vileges ; and that his grant consisted in the creation and conveyance 
of peculiar and exempt legal jurisdiction over those manorial and 
appurtenant lands already acquired by the see of York, and since 
comprehended in what is termed the franchise, or " Liberty of 
Ripon." 

When king Edred proceeded to the north, to revenge the perfidy 
of the Northumbrians, about the year 948, § he devasted and 
burned the town and monastery of Ripon, in consequence, as is 
supposed, of Archbishop Wolstan, its lord, being implicated in the 
rebellion. Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, visited the province of 
York very soon after this devastation. || He had pity, as Leland 
observes, IF on the desolation of Ripon monastery, and began, or 
caused a " new work to be edified wher the present minstre now 
is." Prosperity seems to have followed his exertions so effectually 
that after the lapse of a century, and in the reign of Edward the 

» Placita de Quo Warr. E. C. p. 197. f Mon. Angl. i. 172. 

X Rot. Pari. vol. iv., p. 85. 

g A D. 948, saysMatt.Westm., p.368;but A.D.950, Sim.Dunelm., X Scrip, i., c. 166. 

11 R. de Diceto. X Scrip, e. 455. f Itin. i. 91. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTIOK. 7 

Confessor, the manor had acquired the annual value of 32/. * Arch- 
bishop Aldred was then its lord. He was the last Archbishop of 
York under the Saxon dynasty, and crowned William the 
Conqueror. 

It has been fortunate for the town that the Conqueror bestowed 
the manor on Aldred's successor, Thomas, t rather than on a layman, 
who might have neglected it, in consequence of its comparatively 
defenceless position. He had been a Canon of Bayeux, and having 
aided William with a large sum of money to prosecute his expedi- 
tion, was thus rewarded with the primacy of York. During his 
time the town shared so severely in the devastation that succeeded 
the siege of York in 1069, that when Domesday survey was taken 
sixteen years after, the value of the manor was depreciated to 
11. 105. ; and most of the appurtenant berewics were still desolate 
and waste. Under the fostering and powerful patronage of the 
Archbishops of York, with whom Ripon was a favourite residence X 
until Walter Grey erected the palace at Thorp, the prosperity of 
the town increased apace. The death of Archbishop Thomas 
occurred here, Nov. 18th, 1100 ; § and Murdac retired hither, when 
at issue with his Chapter. The hosts of retainers and followers 
that these great dignitaries daily maintained, together with the 
influx of persons who attended the fairs they had been privileged 
to hold by kings Henry and Stephen, could not fail in that day, 
when commerce M'as confined to chartered localities, to confer 
lasting benefit on the town. The number of persons employed in 
the erection of the church, and the several ecclesiastical structures 
around, must, also, from the long period over which these works 
extended, have contributed to the same result. Before the close of 
the thirteenth century, and probably at a far earlier period, the 
manufacture of woollen cloth had been established in the town, 
which had arrived at such importance as to be deemed worthy of 
representation in parliament. 

On the 3rd of October, 1295, || it was summoned to send two 
members to a parliament, to be held at Westminster on the 13th of 
November following. It was summoned four times afterward, and 
until the 19th Edward IT., when it ceased to send members, until 
the last parliament of Edward VI., IT from which period it has been 
summoned to the present time. 

* Domesday Book. j Ibid. % Stubbs, Act. Pont. Ebor. X Scrip, ii., c. 1709. 
g Bromton., X Scrip, ii. 801. 
Palgrave's Pari. Writs, i. 36, S5. If Willis's Not. Pari., viii., p. 66-7. 



o KIPON. 

About the year 1319, when the country was distracted by the 
contentions of the imbecile Edward and his barons, Robert Bruce 
seized on several of the towns and military stations of the north. 
He sacked and ravaged the Yorkshire towns of Northallerton, 
Boroughbridge, Skipton, and Scarborough, and having turned his 
army in this direction, remained at Ripon three days, where he 
imposed a tribute of one thousand marks on the terrified in- 
habitants, two hundred and forty of which they immediately paid, 
fearing lest he should put his threat of burning the town into 
execution. 

The evil day was only protracted for a while ; for, after his 
pursuit of King Edward to York, his army again visited Ripon, when, 
finding the wretched inhabitants unable to comply with their 
demands, they perpetrated many brutal atrocities ; putting to death, 
among others, several ministers of the collegiate church, which, 
according to Walsingham, they endeavoured to destroy by fire. 

Notwithstanding the calamity which had befallen the town. King 
Edward summoned a parliament to meet here on the 14th of 
November, 1322 ; but it did not assemble, being removed by writ 
of proclamation to York, 

Though this incident may be indicative of the temporary mental 
elasticity of the inhabitants, yet the manufacture of woollen cloth, 
on which the staple and progressive character of the town depended, 
was, probably, never after prosecuted with its former success. 
Indeed the woollen trade, generally, was at this period in a 
very hopeless condition, and never revived, until Edward III. 
induced certain Flemish manufacturers to settle in England, one of 
whose establishments at York would, alone, interfere unfavourably 
with the more unskilful operations conducted here. Yet the resort 
of the country people to its fairs and markets, where, in the 
deficiency of shops, goods of all descriptions were sold, together 
with the presence and patronage of two great ecclesiastical establish- 
ments, must have maintained the town in a reputable commercial 
position. 

During the remainder of the fourteenth century, nothing occurred 
of general interest in the annals of Ripon ; and through that which 
succeeded it, we would hope that the absence of striking incident 
is indicative of a state of peace and contentment ; escaping the 
vicissitudes and troubles to which it might have been exposed by the 
possession of a permanent fortification, and subjection to a military 
lord of the fee, during the desolating wars of York and Lancaster. 



HISTOBICAL INTEODUCTIOK, 9 

But whatever may have been the degi-ee of vigour with which 
the staple manufacture was prosecuted here, during these periods, 
in the middle of the sixteenth century, when a new combination of 
the elements of social progress was evolved, it sensibly declined, 
and the trade was transferred to the more congenial site of Halifax. 
Leland, who was here about the year 1534, observed that " there 
hath bene, hard on the farther Ripe of Skelle, a great numbre of 
tenters for woUen clothes, wont to be made in the town of Ripon. 
But now idelnes is sore encresid in the town, and clothe makeing 
almost decayed." 

The simultaneous dissolution of the i-eligious houses interfered 
also unfavourably with the social comfort and temporal prosperity 
of the town ; not only by diverting the proceeds of large and distant 
estates, which had been freely expended here, into absent or 
avaricious hands, but by exchanging the solace of ancient ties and 
associations for the poisonous infusion of theological strife ; so that 
when a " great plague " visited Ripon, in 1546, the full measure of 
its affliction was filled up. 

This state of derangement and discord continued with little 
abatement until the famous " Rising in the North," in 1569, when 
Richard Norton and Thomas Markenfield, the lords of domains 
hard by Ripon, that had bestowed on their race these ancient and 
chivalrous names, allowed the long suppressed bitterness of their 
religious discontent to plot and urge on that ill-starred expedition, 
in which the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland were put 
forward as the ostensible leaders. The former of these noblemen had 
a seat at Topcliffe, seven miles from Ripon, where the rebels held 
their early meetings. They came here, on their road from Durham, 
on Friday, the 18th of November, 1569, and were here on the 19th, 
when many joined them. They had a muster at the Market-cross, 
and the earls made a proclamation, which Sir George Bowes, their 
adversary, describes as the most effectual thing they did. Here Norton 
displayed his memorable banner, and mass was celebrated in the 
collegiate church. After putting Sir William Ingilby, who had 
opposed them, to flight, they marched to Knaresborough ; and at 
length to Cliiford Moor, whence they injudiciously returned to the 
north ; but the footmen risen in Ripon and the vicinity had seen 
enough of the campaign, and refused to pass their homes. On the 
night of the 16th of December, the lords Warwick and Clinton 
arrived at Ripon, in pursuit of the rebels ; and in the next month 
a dreadful demonstration of their victorious arms was exhibited in 



10 EIPON. 

this place. As a significant and memorable warning, there was 
ordered to be executed here, all the rebel constables of the West- 
Riding, except those of Wetherby, Boroughbridge, and Tadcaster; 
all the offending serving-men of the West-Riding j and lastly, 
within sight of their neighbours, and home, and kindred, the mis- 
guided townsmen of Ripen. 

Towards the close of the sixteenth centuiy, there seems, also, to 
have prevailed much animosity and discord in the borough, chiefly 
caused by the uncertain mode of electing the chief officer, who was 
called " the Wakeman," and the irregular constitution of the muni- 
cipal body ; which, having existed — though, perhaps, originally as a 
Merchant Guild — apparently, from the Saxon times, became, in the 
absence of legally defined powers, a law unto itself, and therefore 
unable either to command respect, or to withstand that rising spirit 
of inductive argument which was not to be satisfied, merely with 
traditional authority. With the consent of Archbishop Hutton — 
Lord of the Manor and Liberty — whose predecessor. Cardinal Wol- 
sey, had similarly interfered in 1517, a definite arrangement was 
attempted in 1598 ; and a code of By-laws framed for the general 
constitution of the body and "government of the town. Much of the 
irregularity being " supposed a long time by y^ most p'te of y* 
wisest and best accompt in and about y*^ said Towne to have fallen 
out by reason of y^ confusion and y*^ number of aldermen being 
never limited w"^ any certaine number," they were then reduced 
from twenty-nine to twelve. Twelve more were added not long 
after ; but the system being still open to objection, the inhabitants, 
soon after the accession of king James, petitioned the monarch for a 
" more certain and undoubted mode of election." 

This was granted to them, June 26th, 1604, in a Charter of Incor- 
poration, obtained chiefly by the efforts of IVIr. Hugh Ripley, a 
" merchant and mercer " of the town, who was Wakeman at that 
time, and was nominated by the Crown, as the first mayor. 

In consequence of the plague raging at York in 1604, the Court 
of the Lord President of the North was adjourned to Ripon, where 
it was held a short time, 

When King James I. was on his progress to Scotland in 1617, 
he honoured Ripon with a brief visit. He left York on Tues- 
day, August 15th, and came here that evening ; when, as the official 
minute in the Corporation Register says, he lodged at " the house of 
Mr. George Dawson, and at his Highnes comynge to the said towne 
Mr. Thomas Proctor, Recorder of this corporation, made a speech 



HISTORICAL INTEODUCTIOX. 



11 



vnto his Ma'"*, w'^'' done, there was presented unto his Highnes, by 
Mr. Symon Browne ]\Iaior, the Aldermen and Burgesses of the said 
Corporation, a gilte bowle and a pair of Rippon spurres, w'''' 
spurres coste v" and were such a contentment to his Ma*'^ as his 
Highnes did weare the same the day followynge at his dep'ture 
forth of the said towne." 

The plague again visited Ripon in 1625, so severely, that the 
country people dreaded approaching the town, and their children 
were more than once baptised on the common pasture. From the 
commencement of its fatality on the 2nd of June, 162.5, to its 
termination on the 4th of May, 1626, there died in all ninety-six 
persons, whose names and places of abode are entered separately in 
the Parish Register. 

In the spring of the year 1632, Charles L passed through Ripon 
on his way to Edinburgh, where he was crowned on the 18th of 
July following. 

The untenable position of the town exempted it from sharing, 
severely, in the horrors of the Grand Rebellion. One of those wars 
of words that preceded that most dire explosion was, however, 
for a while, maintained here : for the Scottish lords having refused, 
in 1640, to treat, at York, with the English Commissioners, Ripon 
was the place agreed on for their meeting. 

The house in which this extraordinary conference was held, toge- 
ther with the table and benches that remained in the apartment 
used by the Commissioners, are still remembered by several persons. 
The great interest that attached to the building could not preserve 
it from destruction. It was pulled down many years ago, and its 
site now forms part of Mr. Cayley's gardens, near Ailcy Hill. 

Another brief incident of this sad drama was enacted here, in 
March, 1642-3, when Sir Thomas IMauleverer entered the town with 
a detachment of the parliamentaiy forces. In the exercise of their 
usual blasphemy and licentiousness, they riotously and profanely 
intruded themselves into the Collegiate Church, and showed what 
kind of liberty they desired, and were worthy to enjoy, by breaking 
the painted windows, and defacing the memorials of the dead. 
" But," says Gent (writing about ninety years after, in his usual 
quaint style), " they were soon after attacked by a detachment of 
Royallists from Skipton Castle, then governed by that glorious suf- 
ferer for his loyalty, Sir John Mallory, of Studley Royal, assisted by 
several Rippon champions, whose duty and allegiance were unal- 
terable ; who, coming upon the rebels by surprise, in the Market- 



12 EIPON. 

place, where they had kept their main guard, made them feel the 
sharpness of their swords, by a better fate than they deserved." 
Some were taken prisoners, and sent " to Skipton and other 
places." 

But the energies of many " glorious sufferers for loyalty " could 
not quench that fierce blaze that was so soon to scathe the land. In 
the very streets where the " Rippon champions " had enjoyed their 
little triumph, they soon after beheld their unfortunate and mis- 
guided king a captive in the hands of his subjects. On his way 
from Newcastle to Holmby, he came here on the 6th of February, 
1646, having then left Richmond ; and remained until the 8th, 
when he was conveyed to Wakefield. He was attended by a strong 
guard of horse and foot, and it is remarkable that Ripon was 
the only place of the ten stages where he was allowed to remain two 
nights. 

The ascendancy of the Parliament affected materially the institu- 
tions of the town, which were all in antagonism with the popular 
feeling. The Manorial rights were seized, and sold to Lord Fairfax 
in 1647. The lands appurtenant to the Royalty were alienated 
between that year and 1650. The Chapter of the Cathedral was 
suppressed ; and many members of the Corporation became so in- 
sensible to the welfare of their country and their town, as to advo- 
cate the principles of puritanical dissent and licentious insubordi- 
nation. 

When order was restored by the accession of King Charles II., 
the Corporations were purged of their unworthy members ; and 
a Commission for that purpose sat here, the 23rd of September, 
1662. The vacancies were supplied by persons of great respect- 
ability, who did all that corporate influence could effect for the 
advancement of the town. For some time they directed their at- 
tention to the renewal of their charter, and the grant of two fairs 
for cattle and horses, that they deemed would be beneficial to the 
inhabitants. Nothing, however, was effected until the accession 
of James II., when, after a consultation with the Archbishop of 
York, they surrendered their charter, September 2nd, 1684, to 
the King, who was pleased to restore it, with another from himself, 
dated 12th January, 1686, confirming all the privileges of the Cor- 
poration, and conceding the fairs they desired. 

From the close of the seventeenth century, the history of the 
town becomes devoid of general interest. It had its own little 
squabbles about the Pretender and the Pope ; but, basking in the 



HISTORICAL INTEODUCTION. 13 

sunshine of tagiicultural prosperity, and restrained by the influence 
of a wealthy and benevolent family, in one bond of political feeling 
that taught " Whatever is, is right," there vras generated a disbelief 
in the possibility of change, that has too often been ruthlessly 
dispelled, in the great social and commercial struggles vi'hich have 
ensued. 

During the last twenty years, the ancient institutions of the town 
— and, especially, from that exclusive character in which their 
original efficacy existed — have been despoiled in silent antagonism 
with those measures by which legislators have attempted to re- 
direct their operation, in a changed condition of society. The 
special privilege of the burgage holders to elect the members of 
Parliament was taken away by the Reform Bill. The numerical 
as well as the administrative power of the Corporation was reduced, 
by the general statute of 1835. The manorial jurisdiction of the 
Archbishop of York has been abridged, his Court of Pleas all but 
absorbed in the County Court, and his once lucrative franchise of 
fairs and markets infringed even within the parish. The consti- 
tution of the Chapter of the Cathedral has been remodelled ; and, 
lastly, the mercantile competition of other and distant places is 
encouraged, by the formation of a railway to the city. 

The last, however, is the only change which may, ultimately, 
affect the prosperity or settled condition of the place. Although, 
of course, it was expected to work — here as elsewhere — such an 
hopeful effect as no man would limit even in imagination ; it may 
be as probable that, with no peculiar advantage of mineral wealth, 
nor of position, except an unlimited water power, Ripon will not 
escape that dominant commercial influence which has risen on the 
ruin of local immunities and associations ; but that henceforth it 
will be exclusively sought and enjoyed by those who would retire 
from successful contention with the world. 




14 EIPON. 



LOCAL GOVERNMENT. 

IRCUMSCRIBING the city is a district— compre- 
hending 33,330 acres and twenty-four townships — in 
which, from the time of the Saxon king Athelstane, 
the Archbishop of York, in right of his manor, has 
exercised an exclusive franchise or jurisdiction, 
immemorially known by the name of " the Liberty 
of Ripon," and, occasionally, by that of " Riponshire." Its outline 
— which has diverted the boundary of the AVest Riding from its 
natural and general direction with the river Uie, — agrees, as might 
have been supposed, nearly with that of the parish ; but several town- 
ships which are included, geographically, in the parochial, are without 
the civil district ; in consequence, I presume, of their ancient feudal 
dependence on the barony and castle of Kirkby Malzeard. It 
compiehends also the adjacent parish of Nidd. 

Within this district, until successive restrictions of the legis- 
lature, the Archbishop enjoyed those extraordinary privileges termed, 
legally, " Jura Regalia,''^ the nature of which cannot be detailed 
here. Suffice it to say, that by the exclusion of the High Sheriff, 
he had unlimited judicial authority, both over the property and the 
lives of the resiants, the one branch remaining in the Court of 
Pleas, the other represented, in an abridged form, by the Court of 
Quarter Sessions. The " Liberty " also maintains its exempt 
character, in its offices of High Steward, Justices of the Peace, 
Coroner, Clerk of the Peace, Chief Constable, and Gaoler. 

The incorporation of the borough has been already alluded to, 
as well as that reformation in 1835, by which it has obtained 
neither an accession of influence nor energy, but an additional 
element of excitement and contention, and the burthensome admi- 
nistration of formal provisions, unnecessary to the welfare or 
government of a small community. The body now consists of a 
Mayor, four Aldermen, and twelve Councillors. The Mayor and 
his predecessor are Justices of the Peace for the Borough ; and the 
Mayor is also in the commission for the Liberty of Ripon, during 
his year of office. 

If a visitor should remain in the citj^ during the evening, he may 



COMMERCIAL POSITION. 15 

hear the sounding of the Mayor's horn, one of the most ancient 
customs that lingers in the kingdom. It formerly announced the 
setting of the watch, whence the chief officer of the town derived 
his Saxon style of " Wakeman," but has, of course, now lapsed into 
a formality. Three blasts, long, dull, and dire, are given at nine 
o'clock at the Mayor's door, by his official Horn-blower, and one 
afterwards at the market-cross, while the seventh bell of the cathe- 
dral is ringing. It was ordained in 1598 that it should be blown, 
according to ancient custom, at the four corners of the cross, at 
nine o'clock ; after which time, if any house " on the gate syd 
within the towne " was robbed, the Wakeman was bound to com- 
pensate the loss, if it was proved that he " and his servants did not 
their duetie at y' time." To maintain this watch he received from 
every householder in the town that had but one door, the annual 
tax of twopence ; but from the owner " of a gate door, and a backe 
dore iiij by the year, of dutie." The original horn, worn by the 
Wakeman, decorated with silver badges and the insignia of the 
trading companies of the town, but shamefully pillaged in 1686,, 
has been several times adorned, especially by John Aislabie, Esq. 
Mayor in 1702. Since the year 1607 it has been worn on certain 
days by the Mayor's Serjeant, in procession. 

The other corporate bodies and institutions in the city may, most 
conveniently, be noticed in surveying the places where they are held 
or administered. 



COMMERCIAL POSITION. 

There is no staple manufacture carried on in the city, unless the 
establishment of three individuals may be allowed to represent the 
trade of saddle-tree making, carried on here as early as the time of 
Queen Elizabeth. After the manufacture of woollen cloth declined, 
in the sixteenth century, that of spurs was carried on with such 
skill and success that the phrase " As true steel as Ripon rowels " — 
applied to express the character of a man of honest principles — 
became proverbial throughout the kingdom. Ben Jonson, in his 
" Staple of Newes," has, — 

" Wliy, there's an angel, if my spurs 
Be not right Rippon.'' 



16 EIPON. 

and Davenant, in his " Wits," — 

" Whip me with wire, beaded with rowels of 
Sharp Rippon spiu-s." 

This trade, together with that of button-making, and some other 
kinds of hardware, prospered throughout the seventeenth and part 
of the eighteenth century, but the advantages obtained, in the 
great seats of general hardware manufacture, by the division of 
labour and a more liberal application of capital, at length caused 
its decline, Alderman John Terry, who occupied the site of the 
second house westward from the Town-hall, and died within recol- 
lection, having been the last spurrier. Subsequently, no kind of 
manufacture has been peculiarly followed in the city, though well 
directed and persevering individual exertion, in several branches of 
trade and manufacture, has been successfully rewarded. 

The weekly market is held on Thursday, and is well supplied with 
all kinds of agricultural produce of superior quality, large quan- 
tities of butter, eggs, and fowls, being particularly required by 
agents from the manufacturing districts. There is a supplementary 
market on Saturday evening, for the sale of garden produce and 
butcher's meat ; and a wool market, held in the " Old Market- 
place," occasionally during the season. 

There are fairs here, also, on the first Thursday after the 20th 
day succeeding old Christmas day ; on the 13th and 14th of May ; 
on the first Thursday and Friday in June ; on the first Thursday 
in November ; and on the 23rd of November, which is a general 
hiring day for servants. A most graphic idea of the scenes 
enacted, occasionally, at the mediaeval fairs here, may be gathered 
from an interesting narrative, recently published in " the Plumpton 
Correspondence." 

From a very early period — doubtless far more remote than the 
thirteenth century, when there is record of the fact — Ripon seems 
to have been a noted place for horse-fairs, and the most spacious 
street in it is still called " the Horsefair," though it is now used 
rather for the periodical exhibition than the sale of horses. It also 
promoted, at a comparatively early period, the bi-eeding of horses, 
by the establishment of races, a course being formed, on the High 
Common, in 1713, at the expense of the Corporation. During the 
time of the Aislabies, they were well encouraged ; but subsequently 
fell off considerably in character, and finally were abandoned on the 
enclosure of the common in 1826. With a view chiefly to afford 
amusement at the annual feast of St. Wilfrid in August, they were 



TOPOGRAPHICAL SUKVET. 17 

re-established, on a new course on the opposite side of the river, in 
1837, and have since been continued, with increasing prospect of 



success. 



TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY. 



The general position of the city is sufficiently indicated by the map, 
and the vignette at the head of our first chapter, showing its bearing 
with reference to the vale of Ure, and the great Yorkshire plain 
beyond. It will be sufficient, therefore, now, to say that Ripon 
stands, chiefly, on a sheltered situation, declining from the north- 
west towards the confluence of the river Ure with the Laver and 
the Skell. The geological stratification, in its immediate vicinity, 
is of the Tertiary character, the city standing on the boundary 
between the new red-sandstone of the Yorkshire Plain, which shows 
itself prominently in a quarry beyond the railway station, and its 
great western terrace of magnesian limestone, which appears on the 
opposite side of the valley at Studley, WhitclifF, Morkershaw, and 
especially at Quarry Moor, where extensive lime-kilns have long 
been established. The soil, occasionally affording useful beds of 
clay, is generally of a gravelly nature, though there is much fertile 
land around the city, and trees show their satisfaction in its quality, 
both in their unusual size and exuberant foliage. 

The antiquary Leland, who was here in the time of king Henry 
VIII., observed, and appearances still confirm his position, that 
" the olde Towne of Ripon stoode much by North and Est " as he 
"could gather by veuing of it" Stammergate and Allhallowgate, 
from their proximity to the Monastery that was the germ of the 
town, were therefore indubitably the most ancient portion of it, and 
from them the dwellings diverged, until the Market-place and its 
vs^estern and southern adjacencies were formed, before the sixteenth 
century. These later parts, in Leland's day, were " the best of the 
toune ; " and he remarks, too, what few could have otherwise 
imagined, that " the very place wher the Market stede and Hart of 
the Towne is, was sumtyme caulled holly hille, of holy trees ther 
growing, wherby it apperith that this parte of the Towne is of a 
newer Buyldynge." 

The plan and prospect of Ripon, recorded upwards of a hundred 
years ago, in the several works of Gent and Buck, exhibit much the 



18 EIPON. 

same appearances as remained until the beginning of the present 
century, since which time many improvements have been effected 
by paving, flagging, and draining streets ; the enclosing of the 
adjacent common lands ; the rebuilding of many old, humble, and 
inconvenient houses ; and the erection and embellishment of new 
ones, especially in the immediate environs. The era of reconstruc- 
tion preceding the present appears to have been during the seven- 
teenth century ; but the outline of the picturesque gable, that was 
so charming a feature in our old street architecture, is still unwit- 
tingly retained in many of the modern erections. Most of these 
fronts were but formed of timber frames, covered with lath and 
plaster — each story projecting over that below. One by one, they 
have been gradually superseded by more convenient arrangements, 
and substantial materials ; and, I believe, an ancient hostelry, in 
the north-west corner of the Market-place, remains now the least 
mutilated example. 

Most of the streets are narrow, like those of other ancient towns, 
where, originally, little more was required than passage for man and 
horse. The chief Market-place is very spacious, and nearly square, 
measuring at the widest points 115 yards by 81. It is adorned by a 
handsome Cross 90ft. high, erected in 1781, by William Aislabie, 
Esq., of Studley, who represented the borough in Parliament sixty 
years : and an elegant Town-hall, of which more will be said here- 
after. 



« THE OLD ABBAY OF RIPON." 



We have already noticed that Eata, abbot of Melrose, obtained, 
about the year 660, certain lands in Ripon, from Alchfrid, king of 
Deira, whereon to construct and maintain a monastic establishment. 
The monks, however, had scarcely erected their humble dwelling, 
before Alchfrid was dissatisfied with their discipline, particularly 
their mode of computing the time of Easter. Having the option, 
therefore, given, either to quit the place, or to conform to his 
wishes, they chose the more independent alternative, and de- 
parted.* 

On this untoward circumstance, which occurred before 664, King 

* Eddij. Vit. Wilfridi, c. viii. Bedse Hist. Eccl., L. v., c. 20, and L. iii., c. 25. 



OLD ABBEY OF BIPOK. 19 

Alchfrid bestowed the monastery, and the lands appurtenant to 
thirty dwellings, on one Wilfrid, whose learning and piety had 
captivated the monarch and his court ; and who henceforth fills an 
important page, not merely of the annals of the town, but of the 
whole Christian church. 

The intercourse of this monarch with Wilfrid, and the peculiar 
tendency of his own mind to adopt the ceremonial practices of the 
Church of Rome, in several matters that agitated the clergy of this 
island, inclined him to join his father in holding a synod, which 
might furnish grounds for regulating the ecclesiastical practice of 
Northumbria in these particulars. This assembly met at Whitby 
in 664, King Oswi himself being present, who, although educated 
in the Scottish discipline, pronounced now in favour of the Church 
of Rome. 

The Bishoprick of York or Northumbria being soon after vacant, 
Wilfrid, who had shown much zeal and ability in supporting the 
Romish cause at the Synod, was elected to that important office. 

Soon after his elevation, he began to realise those principles of 
architectui-e, he had acquired in his continental tours, in the improve- 
ment of his Cathedral church at York ; and, immediately after, it 
would seem, from the consecutive narrative of his Chaplain,* deter- 
mined to erect a new monastery at Ripon. Of what form and 
extent the old Abbey had been, is of course unknown. Its site, 
occupying upwards of two acres and a half, is still circumscribed, 
I presume, by a portion of Stammergate, Priest-lane, and a nameless 
road on the south ; and has immenioiially been called " Scots' 
Monument Yard." The buildings were undoubtedly of wood — 
judging alike from the fashion of the Scots, t and the ability of 
the times. The raised platform by the poplar trees seems composed 
of gravel, but there are foundations diverging from it that have 
disclosed large stones. Several Saxon stycas, of the Northumbrian 
king Ethelred, have been dug up in this field ; and a portion of a 
cylindrical column of grit-stone 4ft. 5in. in circumference. This 
might, however, have formed part of some subsequent oratory. 

Wilfrid, from some cause now unintelligible, chose the site of his 
new foundation about 200 yards from the old building ; and on the 
western side of what is now the public street ; but we have, unfor- 
tunately, no more definite idea of its design and magnitude, than is 
suggested in the observation of his chaplain Eddi, that it was 

* Eddij. Vita Wilfridi, e. xvii. j Bedte Hist. Eccl., L. iii., c. xxiv. 



20 RIPON. 

built of wrought or polished stone, and that divers columns and por- 
ticos entered into its construction. William of Malmesbury, however, 
amid the more magnificent erections of after ages, records its curious 
arches, fine pavements, and winding recesses. Yet these particulars, 
combined with the fact that Wilfrid brought workmen from Italy 
who wrought in the Roman manner, and guided by the description 
Richard, Prior of Hexham, gives of that church, which was built by 
Wilfrid in 674, will afford us a tolerable idea of the celebrated 
Monastery of Ripon. 

The foundation of this structure seems to have occurred between 
the first regnal year of King Egfrid, who was present at its consecra- 
tion, and 678, when that monarch, by the advice of his wife, 
persuaded Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, to depose Wilfrid, 
who then departed to Rome to receive justice from the Pope. 
Theodore substituted two bishops in his stead — Bosa having his see 
at York, and Eata at Hexham or Lindisfarne. At the same time 
he ordained, at York, Eadhead, Bishop of Sidnacester ; and three 
years after Wilfrid's departure, placed Trumbert over the church of 
Hexham, and Tromwine over the province of the Picts* — Eata 
being removed to Lindisfarne. 

Still deeming that a more minute supervision was required, the 
Church of Ripon was constituted an Episcopal See, and Eadhead, 
who had returned from Sidnacester, was appointed its Bishop. f 

From the continual aim and endeavour of Wilfrid to subject the 
Saxon kings to the papal influence, he was allowed but brief and 
occasional enjoyment of his monastery here ; yet he outlived or 
wearied out his most pertinacious adversaries, and, after the synod 
of Nidd, was allowed to retire here in peace. Shortly after, on a 
journey, he was taken ill at the Abbey of Oundle in Northamp- 
tonshire, where he died on the 12th of October, 711, in the 
seventy-sixth year of his age; but in obedience to his own par- 
ticular request, his body was brought to Ripon for interment, 
where it was deposited on the south side of the altar of his con- 
ventual church. 

King Athelstane, as I have previously observed, granted certain 
valuable immunities to the Monastery of Ripon ; the particulars of 
which are defined in two charters of that monarch, printed in the 
Monasticon. I presume, however, that both these documents were 

* BedfB Hist. Bccl., L. iv., c. 12, Wheloc, 291. 
t Ibid.—" Rhipeusi Ecclesise prsefecit." Ibid. L. iii., c. 28—" Hrypensis Ecclesiae 
prsesul factus est." 



OLD ABBEY OF RIPON. 21 

fabrications of much later days,* and framed more in the nature of 
an inspeximus, than that of an original grant, particularly the one 
in prose, which is witnessed by " G," or Geoffrey, Archbishop of 
York,t and natural son of King Henry II. By the rhyming 
charter, which is a curious specimen of English verse, as written 
at the end of the thirteenth century, the valuable privilege of 
Sanctuary was conceded to the church, together with the ordeal 
of fire and water ; freedom from tax and tribute ; and other 
immunities. 

The boundary of this place of refuge was marked, at the end of 
the thirteenth century, by eight crosses circumvallating the church, 
and called mile crosses ; where, at that period, the Archbishop 
of York claimed that his bailiffs had the right to meet the homicide, 
who should flee thither ; and, after administering to him the neces- 
sary oath, admit him within the privileged jurisdiction. The posi- 
tion of three are only now distinguished. Athelstane's cross 
was situate on the road between Ripon and Nunwick, by a 'field 
still called Athelstane-close. The stump of Archangel cross was 
lately sunk in the hedge of a lane leading from the Navigation bridge 
to Bondgate ; and Sharow cross still remains entire in the highway 
from Ripon to that village. Another nameless cross formerly stood 
on the further side of Bishopton toll-gate ; but whether one of this 
series I cannot at present ascertain. The Grithstool that stood in 
the church, and conferred the last degree of security on its occupant, 
is now destroyed, and I am unable to say in what part of the choir 
it stood. 

The monastery had no sooner received these valuable immunities 
than it was doomed to irretrievable destruction ; for in 948 or 950, 
when King Edred devastated the North, it was destroyed by fire 
and rendered no longer tenable. 

* Mon. Angl., V. i , p. 172. t Camden's Remains, p. 198 



22 EIPOK. 



« THE CHAPELLE OF OUR LADY. ' 

Yet the ruin of the " Old Abbay of Ripon " was not entirely 
abandoned to desolation. A chapel was founded there, no doubt, 
within the walls of some portion that was left undisturbed — for the 
ravages of Edred could scarcely have extended to the shell of the 
building — and Leland has left us the following circumstantial 
account of what otherwise would have perished irretrievably. 

" The Old Abbay of Ripon," says he, " stode wher now is a 
Chapelle of our Lady, in a Botom one close distant by * * * * from 
the new minstre. 

" One Marmaduke, Abbate of Fountaines, a man familiar with 
Salvage, Archebishop of York, (1501-7) obtained this Chapelle 
of hym, and Prebendaries of Ripon : and having it gyven onto 
hym and to his Abbay, piillid down the est end of it, a pece of 
exceding auncient JVark, and buildid a fair pece of new Werk 
with squarid stones for it, leving the west ende of very old werk 
standing. 

" He began also and finishid a very fair high waul of Squarid ston 
at the est end of the Garth that this chapel stondeth yn : and 
had thought to have inclosj/d the hole garth with a lyhe waulle, 
and to have made there a cell of white monks. There lyethe one 
of the Englebys in the est end of this chapell, and there lyith 
another of them yn the chapelle garthe, and in the chapel singith a 
cantuarie prest. 

" One thing I much notid, that was 3 crossis standing in row at 
the Este Ende of the Chapelle Garth. They were things anti- 
quissimi operis, and monumentes of some notable men buried 
there, so that of al the old monasterie of Ripon and the toun, I 
saw no likely tokens left after the depopulation of the Danes in 
that place, but only the Waulles of our Lady chapelle and the 
crossis." 

The indefatigable antiquary was, no doubt, correct in his sup- 
position ; and little did he imagine, as he viewed the venerable 
remains that would have thrown a most vivid light on the interest- 
ing subject of Saxon architecture, could we now see them as he 



CHAPEL or OUR LADY. 23 

did, that in a few years, the " fair pece of new werk, and the pece 
of exceding auncient wark," would be involved in one common ruin. 
The foundation having been suppressed in 1547, the fabric became, 
no doubt, a quarry for all who were wicked enough to remove " the 
remnants of the shattered pile ;" though, I am afraid, the hands of 
false friends contributed not a little to its demolition. There is 
now nothing above ground to mark the site. Abbot Huby's wall, 
which merits Leland's encomium of a fair piece of work, remains, 
enclosing the " Chapelle garth," which forms part of the Deanery 
garden and paddock. I have reason to believe the foundations and 
outline of the Saxon Monastery might still be traced, and such an 
operation on a building, whose pre-eminent antiquity is so well 
ascertained, could not fail to be deeply interesting. Nothing of 
any importance has been found within memory, except a few small 
and curious tesserae of the floor, that were turned up in 1837. 




THE CATHEDRAL, FROM THE BANKS OF THE SKELL. 



THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. PETER AND 
ST. WILFRID. 




OT long after the destruction of "Wilfrid's 
Monastery, Leland informs us it was " the com- 
mune opinion" in his day, that " Odo, Arch- 
bishop of Cantewarbyri, (Canterbury) cumming 
ynto the Northe partes with King .... (Edred ?) 
had pitie on the desolation of Ripon Chirch, and 
began, or causid a new work to be edified wher the Minstre now 
is ; " but that no part of this structure then remained. Odo him- 
self, in his preface to Frithgode's Metrical Life of Wilfrid, also 
informs us that, on visiting the old Monastery, he found the grave 
of Wilfrid in a state of scandalous and indecent neglect ; and 
removed his bones to a proper receptacle in his Metropolitan Church. 
This statement has, nevertheless, been questioned. 

If the Benedictine monks obtained the benefit of the new erection, 
they did not retain it long. Between 1060 and 1069 Aldred, 



THE CATHEDEAL. 25 

Archbishop of York, and Lord of the manor, had founded certain 
Prebends in the church, either in addition to a previous number, or 
as an original endowment, and these Canons of St. Wilfrid were 
in the enjoyment of their privileges when the Domesday survey 
was made. 

In the beginning of the century succeeding the Norman Conquest, 
Archbishop Thurstan gave to the " church of St. Wilfrid " one 
carucate of land, " in dedicatione," and also two oxgangs of land in 
Sharow, for the foundation of a prebend that has since borne 
that name. An erroneous interpretation of the intent of the former 
donation has induced the general statement, most prominently 
developed in the seventeenth volume of the Archeeologia, that 
Thurstan built the Collegiate Church of Ripon ; and that, except 
the additions and alterations in the Decorated and Perpendicular 
style, it remains a monument of his genius and liberality to this day. 

This noble work, I have, however, had the pleasure to ascertain, 
is another of the many benefits which the See of York derived from 
the Pontificate of the wealthy and talented Roger of Bishopbridge, 
who held it from 1154 to 1181 ; for the chroniclers have recorded 
comparatively nothing of one whose generosity and piety, in raising 
the ancient choir of York Cathedral, and the adjacent Collegiate 
Chapel of St. Sepulchre, will now acquire, at the distance of nearly 
seven centuries, the honour of another most important work. It 
was fortunate, therefore, that in this instance he had evaded their 
neglect ; and, in a record which he caused to be prepared, has 
himself notified — " quod dedimus operi beati Wilfridi de Ripon ad 
sedificandam basilicam ipsius quam de now inchoavimiis mille 
libras veteris monetae." With this treasure a noble pile was begun, 
as is still evident in those members of it which remain in the 
transepts, and north-west portions of the choir. 

We are not informed how much of the structure was perfected 
before the Archbishop's decease, though the state of the nave at 
that period seems only doubtful. After the plan, originally devised 
by Roger, was completed, the elegant taste and ample resources of 
some unknown benefactor, dissatisfied with the tall nave, termi- 
nating abruptly without aisles on the west, renewed that front in 
the lancet style, and produced a noble and imposing fa9ade, by the 
addition of a tower on each side, adorned with lofty spires of timber 
and lead. The centre tower had, perhaps, been originally adorned 
by a similar termination, though of much less altitude. 

It was, I apprehend, in furtherance of this work, that Archbishop 



26 EIPON. 

Wickwane in 1284, and Archbishop Romayne in 1287, had issued 
their letters of indulgence for forty days to those who should con- 
tribute to the works of this church. 

Thus efficiently completed, the church remained in beauty and 
strength until the inroad of the Scots, in 1319, when they set fire 
to the building, and destroyed some of its inmates. 

At this time William de Melton, who had endeavoured to repulse 
the Scots, held the Archiepiscopal staff with a firm and apostolic 
hand. His generosity and efficient patronage of architectural science 
confirms the statement that he applied himself to the reparation of 
the misfortune, and the eastern portion of the choir is pointed to as 
his work. 

Though the injuries caused by the Scots had not probably 
extended beyond the Roof, Screens, Stalls, and other inflammable 
portions of the building, the work of renovation and amplification 
proceeded slowly. We do not learn how the valiant Archbishop 
Zouch, who resided awhile at his palace here, encouraged his 
Canons in the undertaking ; but immediately after the appointment 
of the great Thoresby to the Archiepiscopal chair, he issued, 26th 
October, 1354, his Letters of Request to Thomas Button and others, 
to collect the charitable alms of all faithful and well disposed 
persons within the diocese of York, to the use of the fabric of this 
Church, and, with the money thus obtained, the work was no doubt 
completed. 

A century had but just elapsed before the Canons were again 
called upon to repel the attacks of an enemy more insidious and 
irresistable than the violence of man. The Lantern Tower, " which 
at first was so sumptuously built, was then, as well by neglect of 
workmen that first made it, as by thunder, and frequent storms and 
tempests, so much shaken and broken that the greatest part thereof 
was already fallen, and the rest expected to follow, if no speedy 
remedy was applied." The fabric fund being unable to meet the 
emergency, William Booth, Archbishop of York, was moved, on the 
4th of February, 1459, 37 Henry VL, to grant an indulgence of 
forty days pardon to all such as should afford their charitable relief 
towards the re-edification, construction, and sustentation of the 
said steeple. 

The rebuilding of the steeple was not fully accomplished. The 
south and east sides, that called for immediate restoration, were 
rebuilt after a noble and elegant design ; and a preparation, that 
now disfigures the interior of the nave, denotes that the rest waS' 



THE CATHEDEAL. 27 

intended to be removed ; but the east wall of the transept, and the 
southern portion of the choir contiguous to the vitiated angle of the 
tower, seem to have demanded such immediate attention, that I 
presume it was deemed more advisable to expend the funds in their 
reconstruction, than in the completion of the tower. The arms of 
the See of York, Fountains Abbey, the families of Pigot of Clother- 
holme, and Norton of Norton, that adorned the late wooden ceiling 
of the south transept, showed who were the chief contributors to 
this work. The masses of masonry that had been projected from the 
tower, had, it is probable, so mutilated the rood-screen and the 
wooden lattices of the choir, with their contiguous stalls, that a new 
series of stalls was begun in 1489, and completed in 1494, about 
which period the rood-screen and sedilia were erected. The lady- 
loft likewise was built before 1482. 

Having thus vigorously " set their hand to the plough," our Canons 
proceeded with that enthusiasm and lofty unity of purpose that 
actuated, so triumphantly, the architectural works of those earlier 
days, and next turned their attention to the ruined condition of the 
nave. Its monotonous length, inaccordant with the aisled ampli- 
tude of the rest of the structure, probably suggested its removal, in 
preference to its restoration ; and it must be allowed that he who 
was selected to prepare the new design, wrought with no ordinary 
or unskilful hand. 

The precise time when the work was commenced, is at present 
unknown. The arms of Pigot of Clotherholme, in conjunction with 
those of the town, on the lower portion of one of the pillars, has 
been supposed to indicate that this part was erected while Randolph 
Pigot was Wakeman, in 1471 ; but this is doubtful authority. A 
local Chronicle, written in 1615, says that, " On the 6th day of 
Februarie, 1502, did the Chapter of the Church of Rippon make ordi- 
nances & statutes for the repaire & Re-edifiing of the same beinge at 
that tyme in great decays &; Ruine;" and the arms of Savage, Arch- 
bishop of York, and those of his successor, Baynbridge, as a Cardinal, 
are good evidence that an interval of at least nine years elapsed 
before its completion. Leland, who was at Ripon about 1534, ob- 
served " the body of the Church of late dayes, made of a great 
widnesse by the Treasour of the Church and the Gentilmen of the 
Cuntery." 

Even when an unprophetic eye might note the surging clouds of 
an impending and most fearful reformation, the Chapter once more 
met under the presidency of the rich and learned Bradley, late 



28 BIPON. 

Abbot of Fountains, and Suffragan Bishop of Hull, to deliberate on 
the renovation of a pile in which they could not reasonably predict 
that their imposing rites and ceremonies could be celebrated long. 
On Sunday, the 31st of October, 1546, they set apart a certain por- 
tion of their revenue to repair the belfry and wall of the north aisle,* 
which threatened to fall ; but before their plan could be brought into 
operation, the structure had passed into ruthless and unfriendly hands. 

After the dissolution of the Collegiate Church, with its Chantries, 
by virtue of the statute of 1 Edward VI., their possessions were 
leased out by the Crown, and but the pittance of a few pounds 
reserved to the minister who was appointed to conduct the 
parochial services. Archbishop Sandys, aided by the influence of 
the great Burghley, and the Lords Huntingdon and Sheffield, endea- 
voured to obtain from Queen Elizabeth an endowment equal at least 
to the dignity of an extensive and populous parish ; but " they never 
obtained anything but fair, unperformed promises." 

In the awful state of spiritual destitution which then prevailed, 
not only here, but generally in the North, the establishment of " An 
Ecclesiastical College " at Ripon was proposed in 1596, — as well to 
supply the parochial cure of souls, as to maintain the Protestant 
faith by the creation of a learned and intelligent ministry. The 
list of patrons contained the names of many persons of rank and 
learning, including Dean Nowell and Hooker, and improveable funds 
were provided ; yet neither then, nor in 1604, when the burgesses 
influenced Anne of Denmark in its favour, could the project be car- 
ried into effect, although there is evidence that the building was in 
a state of preparation, and other arrangements made for the recep- 
tion of students. 

The necessity of the case, however, was so far locally recognised, 
that on the 2nd of August, 1604, King James constituted the late 
dissolved Collegiate Church of Austin Canons a Collegiate Church, 
to consist of a Dean and six Prebendaries for ever, and granted to 
them many of the ample sources of revenue which the old founda- 
tion had received from the piety and charity of numerous benefac- 
tors. In consequence of arrangements which need not be detailed, 
the Dean and Chapter surrendered the said revenues by deed enrolled 
8th of June, 1608, to the King, who, by charter dated the same day, 

* This must apply to the choir, the nave being but just rebuilt. The words of the 
act of Chapter are "Sunt nonnulli defectus el Ruinositat' aperte tarn Campanilis 
quara niuri lapldis insulie borealis ejusd'm Eccl'ie qui irrumpunt'r," &c. Vet the 
choir exliibits no particular work of that date, and is still in no danger. 



THE CATHEDKAL. 



29 



constituted the office of Sub-dean, and granted to them, with their 
ancient Canon Fee Court and many other privileges, the source of 
revenue they have since enjoyed. 

The architectural history of the structure since the Reformation 
may be briefly narrated. Alderman Theakstone's MS. Chronicle, 
written in 1615, says, on the 5th of May, 1593, "was the greate 
speare of Sainct Wilfray steeple in Rippon sett on fire by lighten- 
inge about thre of the clocke in the morning, and by God's ayde, 
& helpe of the Towne's men, it was quinshed before seaven of the 
Clocke in ye morninge." From intentions more commendable for 
their reverence for antiquity, than prudence for the safety of the 
fabric, the shattered " speare " was allowed to remain until the 8th 
of December, 1660, when, " by reason of a violent storm of winde, 
the great steeple (by which the brief I quote designates the spire), 
was blown down," and demolished the roof of the chancel, " which 
was the only part where the people could assemble for the duties of 
public worship." " The body, likewise, of the said church, which 
was before very ruinous, being, by the fall of the said steeple, sorely 
shaken and much weakened, insomuch as the charge for the more 
necessary repair of the said church, without rebuilding the steeple," 
was supposed to amount to 6000/., the inhabitants obtained the King's 
letters patent, enabling the Mayor of Ripon, with the Dean and oth^r 
Commissioners, to receive the contributions of those who should wish 
to contribute to the'good work — pertinently reminding them that "the 
Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." 

The people responded liberally to the royal exhortation ; but, in 
consequence of the embezzlement of a great portion of the contribu- 
tions, little more was accomplished than the imperative restoration 
of the choir roof, and the woodwork it had crushed in its descent. 
In 1664 the spires of the western towers were removed to obviate 
the recurrence of another catastrophe. 

From this period, though the Chapter paid all the attention which 
their funds would allow to the immediate requirements of the 
fabric, the hand of time was eff"ectually performing its insidious and 
lamentable work, until the appointment of Dr. Webber to the 
Deanery, in 1829, when it was found that serious and most extensive 
renovation was required in all portions of the building. Mr. Blore 
having reported that 3096/. would be required to effect an efficient and 
substantial repair, and 2785/. more "to give to the interior a uniform 
and consistent character," the Chapter, according to ancient pre- 
cedent, publicly stated the urgency of the case to their parishioners 



32 



KIPON. 



and friends, who provided funds whicli ultimately amounted to 
upwards of 3000/. 

A new roof and ceiling was now bestowed on the nave, and its 
clerestory lights were repaired. The choir was groined, its windows 
re-glazed and repaired, a new altar-screen was erected, and some 
minor operations effected in the choir. 

In consequence of the Report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 
and under the provisions of an Act of Parliament, 6 & 7 
Will, IV., c. 77, an Episcopal See was erected at Ripon, con- 
sisting of that part of the County of York heretofore in the Diocese 
of Chester, of the Deanery of Craven, and of such parts of the 
Deanery of the Ainsty and Pontefract, in the County and Diocese 
of York, as lie to the westward of the Liberty of the Ainsty and 
the Wapentakes of Barkstone Ash, Osgoldcross, and Staincross — a 
district containing the great towns of Leeds, Bradfoid, Halifax 
Wakefield, and Huddersfield, among a host of lesser note. 

By this act, also, the Collegiate Church of Ripon, and the Chapter 
thereof, were made the Cathedral and Chapter of the new See ; and, 
according to ancient precedent, the town of Ripon became dignified 
with the appellation of a city. 

The Rev. Charles Thomas Lorigley, D.D., the amiable and learned 
head master of Harrow School, was appointed first Bishop of Ripon ; 
and was consecrated in York Minster, Nov. 6, 1836. 

The constitution of this Chapter was further changed by the 
Act 3 & 4 Vict., c. 113, which directs that the Prebendaries shall 
in future be designated Canons, and be reduced to four — each one 
of whom shall keep residence three months in each year, and the 
Dean eight months ; that the first vacant Canonry shall be 
suspended, and the second filled up, and that the Sub-deanery, also, 
shall be suspended on the next avoidance ; that the Canonries shall 
be in the patronage of the Bishop of Ripon, who is constituted visitor 
of the Chapter ; and that a certain sum shall be paid by the Ecclesi- 
astical Commissioners, to provide for the efficient performance of 
the duties of the said Chapter, and /or the maintenance of the fabric 
thereof. It had been previously directed, by 2 & 3 Vict., c. 55, 
that upon the vacancy of any two Canonries or Prebends Resi- 
dentiary in the Cathedral Church of Ripon, among others, that a 
successor should be appointed to the second of such vacant stalls 
respectively. It is enacted, also, by the 4 & 5 Vict., c. 39, that 
Honorary Canons shall be forthwith established in this, among other 
Cathedral Churches ; but none, as yet, have been appointed. 




Abp. Roger's 
work, A.D. 
1154 to 1181. 



Early English. 

^^ Decorated. 
Perpendicular. 



GROUND PLAN OF RIPON CATHEDRAL. 



THE CATHEBEAL. 31 



SURVEY OF THE CATHEDRAL.* 

" They dreamt not of a perishable home, 
Who thus could build. Be mine in hours of fear,' 
Or grovelling thought, to seek a refuge here." 

The first Christian church that occupied the site of the present 
Cathedral was, doubtless, that of which we find remains in the 
Saxon crypt, called St. Wilfrid's Needle ; but since, according to 
Leland, the monastery was situated elsewhere, and the original 
parish church of Ripon stood in Allhallowgate, we must conclude 
that Wilfrid built another, besides his conventual church at Ripon, 
as he did at Hexham, and that this was its identical site. 

This structure would certainly not escape that devastation of 
King Edred, in 948, when even the monastery was not spared ; and 
the next which arose on the site was a church which, Leland says, 
Odo, then Archbishop of Canterbury, " caused to be edified wher the 
Minstre now is," Of this building no traces remain ; and the ruth- 
less visit of William the Conqueror to the North will sufficiently 
account for its disappearance. 

This state of destitution, I apprehend, then called on Thomas the 
Norman, whom the Conqueror had appointed Archbishop of York, 
to commence a new work, of which a portion — apparently the south 
aisle of the choir — remains attached to the corresponding member 
of the present church. 

The rapid development of architectural science, rather, perhaps, 
than the necessity of the case, next prompted the taste and liberality 
of Roger, Archbishop of York, to begin, between the years 1154 and 
1181, the erection of a new "Basilica," of which the proportions 
are amplified in the present structure only by the addition of the 
western towers, the aisles of the nave, and the elongation, by one 
bay, of the clerestoiy of the choir. The greater part of this work 

* References to the plan : — 

A Nave. G The Mallorie Chapel. 

B West entrance. H Steps leading to the Library. 

C C West Towers. I Choir. 

D D North and South Transepts. K High Altar. 

E Centre, or St. Wilfrid's Tower. L Chapter House. 

F The Markenfield Chapel. M Vestry. 



32 



EIPON. 



is now re-edified, yet sufficient remains to indicate the entire plan 
and design of a work which deserves considerable attention, not merely 
as the work of a noted builder and a member of the Church of Can- 
terbury when the " glorious choir of Conrad " was in existence, but 
as having respect to a Continental, rather than an English develop- 
ment of the Romanesque method, and as forming a useful study in 
comparison with the neighbouring and contemporary structures of 
Fountains and Kirkstall, Jervaux and By land. 

The several alterations, which were subsequently introduced, have 
been sufficiently indicated in the brief historical account of the 
building, from which, also, it will have been perceived that the 
Cathedral contains an example of every style of Christian architec- 
ture that has been used in England from its introduction in the 
Saxon times to its utter debasement in the sixteenth century. 



WEST FRONT. 

On approaching the church by Kirkgate, which leads thither from 
the market-place, the western facade rises before the spectator in 
imposing dignity and beauty. Except the modern addition of pin- 
nacles and battlements to the tower, it remains free from those 
superinductions which, however intrinsically beautiful, often offend 
the eye in this portion of cathedral and conventual churches, and 
presents one of the most majestic specimens of the Early English 
style in this kingdom. Though it was erected nearly a century after 
the death of Archbishop Roger, in amplification of his west end of 
the nave, which probably resembled in spirit that of the north tran- 
sept; yet, with all its more artistic subdivision of individual parts, 
the general spirit — allowing for just assimilation — is strongly re- 
spective of Romanesque distribution, as exhibited in Roger's work, 
as the particular treatment of the design is shown to be by the 
west end of Southwell Collegiate Church. 

The elevation exhibits a gabled compartment, 103 feet high and 
43 feet wide, flanked by two towers of little superior altitude. In 
the basement story are three deeply-recessed doorways, surmounted 
by two tiers of lancet lights, occupying its whole width, — and 
divided by clustered and banded shafts, enriched with the toothed 
ornament, and terminated by foliated capitals. Each- of these ten 
windows is divided into two trefoil-headed lights, and a surmount- 
ing quatrefoil — an arrangement which has been thought subsidiary 



THE CATHEDKAL. 33 

to the original design ; though the date I have assigned to the work 
will prove not to be incongruous with the last gradation of the 
Early English style. Above the upper tier, the centre window being 
the tallest, and the rest receding in proportion, according to the 
spirit of the old Lombard fronts, are three lancet lights conjoined, 
in the swiftly declining pediment, which is finished by a bold corbel 
table, and crowned by a modern cross. The towers are on the same 
plane as the centre compartment, though divided from it by unstaged 
buttresses, that give a slight projection to each angle of the towers, 
and relieve the flatness that pervades the vast expanse of the western 
elevation. They are divided, above the basement-story, which 
shows in front a trifoliated arcade, into three stages, in each of which, 
the face, originally disengaged from the old nave, has an arcade of 
three members ; the centre compartment of each being pierced with 
a lancet light, and the archivolt supported by tall banded shafts, 
some single, some clustered. A corbel table surmounts the last 
stage, and prepared originally for the lofty octagonal spires of timber 
and lead, that long and ably completed the effect of an original and 
striking design. 

To finish the curtailed extremities, battlements were erected ; 
but these being much injured by a violent wind in 1714, the offen- 
sive appearance remained until 1797, when Dean Waddilove added 
a similar work, with pinnacles — the best relief that, under circum- 
stances, could be devised. 

The southern tower contains a peal of eight Bells, of the aggre- 
gate weight of 90cwt. Oqrs. 3 lbs., cast by Lester and Pack, in 
March, 1762. There hung there previously five bells, and one in 
the opposite tower, which was said to have been brought from 
Fountains Abbey. 

The Clock was put up by Thwaites, of London, at the cost of 
400/., in the south tower, in 1809, in the place of a similar public 
convenience, provided by Dean Dering, in 1723. 



EXTERIOR OP THE NAVE. 

Before a visitor enters the church, I would advise him to examin 
its northern elevation, in order to obtain a definite idea of some 
features that might otherwise seem inexplicable within, though the 
eye, refreshed by the beautiful western facade, may not relish the 
more severe character of the transept, or even that of the nave 
that rises by his side. The nave is divided in length into six bays . 



3i EIPON. 

the windows of the clerestory, from the absence of a triforium, being 
sufficiently capacious to contain five lights, while those of the side 
aisles have but three, and consequently less ramified tracery. On 
the south, and, perhaps, earlier side, the tracery of the aisle 
windows, as well as the section of the vaulting shafts, are of less 
angular character than the opposite members, and the buttresses 
have also a third or additional stage. On both the sides, the but- 
tresses have been prepared for pinnacles, which should be supplied, 
as well as to the battlement of the clerestory, where they would 
contribute much to break the monotony of its long horizontal lines 
and the gloom of the slated roof. 



TRANSEPT. 

The north transept is the best example of the style of Roger's 
" Basilica," — the corresponding member having been pariially 
renewed in the fifteenth century. Each side is divided into bays 
by a pilaster process — though, from the addition of an eastern aisle, 
differently treated in detail. Yet, in front, the unfashionable Norman 
arrangement of a central pilaster — easy to be contrasted at Foun- 
tains — is discarded, and those at the angles are expanded sufficiently 
to form two square bell turrets, which rise to a level with the apex 
of the pediment. They are pierced in the summit of each face by 
a plain round-headed aperture, divided by a mullion, while cylin- 
drical shafts enrich the angle of each turret, and form rudely-pointed 
pinnacles to its pyramidal termination, surmounted by a plain knob 
or pommel ; the whole being a good example of an arrangement 
which shows the germ of a spire and pinnacles. The semicircular- 
headed lights are arranged in two tiers, between which the tri- 
forium intervenes in the interior. Below the six windows of the 
front is the doorway, not placed in the centre, but towards the west, 
and immediately opposite to one of nearly similar design in the 
south transept. This doorway is very remarkable, having a plain 
trefoil head, rising from a corbel-like projection, placed at the 
impost of the soffit, and is flanked by three receding shafts, whose 
elegantly foliated capitals assimilate with this Romanesque trefoil, 
and support an archivolt of bold but undecorated mouldings. 

The transept has an eastern aisle, over which was originally a 
chapel, communicating with the triforium both of the transept and 
of the choir; but, when that part of the structure was considered 
superfluous, the apertures in the transept wall were closed, and the 



THE CATHEDEAL. 35 

roof settled to the level of the vault. A parapet wall, and a mullion 
to some of the windows, is all that intrudes on the original integrity 
of this part of the church. 

The original design of the Central Tower may here be advan- 
tageously observed. The extreme pitch of the ancient roofs nearly 
hid its exterior walls, except where the space on each side of the 
gables was pierced with a semicircular-headed window. A shaft 
that runs up the angle is checked only from forming a pinnacle by 
a capital that ranges with the corbel table ; and may have suggested 
the moulding that was afterwards used in the same portions of the 
western towers. The octagonal spire of timber and lead, that sur- 
mounted this tower until 1660, was of the height of 120 feet — having 
four spurs of the height of 21 feet, and a battlement at its base. 

On passing towards the Choir, we see the most perfect specimen 
of Archbishop Roger's work in its three western bays, though, from 
the intrusion of Decorated windows in the side aisles, we may judge 
better of the original effect, by inspecting the contiguous face of the 
transept, which is precisely of the same design. The elevation of 
the clerestory exhibits, simply, a succession of bays, made by 
pilaster strips, each occupied by an arcade of one round between 
two pointed members, the central one being pierced for a 
window — a Romanesque design, which was, judiciously, assimilated 
in the subsequent construction of the western front. The remainder 
of this side of the Choir, being the two bays of the Presbytery, was 
rebuilt in the Decorated style, probably by Archbishop Melton 
(1319 — 1340), and is worthy of examination, if only from the 
amount of evidence it contributes to the disputed history of the 
Chapter-House at York, to which it bears strong resemblance in 
much of its character and detail. 

The elevation of the east end, though simple in outline, is 
rendered extremely effective by the massy buttresses, capped with 
corresponding pinnacles or miniature turrets, which break it into 
three divisions, and flank its sides. Each of the aisles shows but a 
plain window like the lateral lights ; but the great window of seven 
lights, occupying an area 51 feet high and 25 wide, is a magnificent 
example of the Early Decorated style, though not so rich as the 
east window at Guisbrough Priory, with which the whole of this 
fagade may, indeed, be usefully compared. 

The south side of the church, being enclosed by the wall of the 
cemetery, cannot be conveniently viewed by a visitor before he is 
conducted through the interior, 

d2 



36 EIPON. 



INTERIOR OF THE NAVE. 

On entering the church, at the western door, an imposing 
perspective, to the extent of 270 feet, is presented to the eye, 
intercepted only by the rood screen and the superincumbent organ ; 
but presenting, in the most unseemly and useless protrusion of one 
of the piers of the central tower, an anachronism, which a previous 
external inspection could alone, instantly, explain. The harmonious 
design of the spacious nave, captivating even to a spectator unac- 
quainted with the principles and capabilities of Gothic architecture, 
will fill him with astonishment, who finds that, at least, the propor- 
tions of the plan were defined by antecedent operations ; and that 
a judicious apportionment of its constituent parts has effected 
almost entirely this triumphant result. The tall and graceful 
pillars that support, without an intermediate triforium, a range of 
lofty windows of elaborate tracery, extending from the summit of 
the arcade to the panels of the roof, range on the foundation walls 
of Archbishop Roger's nave ; the aisles having been obtained by 
comprehending a space defined by the towers that projected to give 
breadth to the western front. This combination has rendered the 
nave the widest of any cathedral in the kingdom, except those of 
York, Chichester, Winchester, and St. Paul's — measuring 87 feet. 
If we may judge from the bays still incorporated with the extremities 
of the present nave, the structure which preceded it must have had 
a sombre, though singular, effect, having pi'esented a lofty pointed 
triforium, surmounted by plain round-headed lights, and divided into 
bays by shafts resembling those in the transept. The aisles remain 
open to the roof ; but it is evident that they were intended to be 
groined, from the springers, whose capitals are adorned with angels 
holding shields, five of which are charged. On the north side are, 

Three horse shoes, for Fountains Abbey. 

Quarterly, 1 and 4, two battleaxes in pale, in chief two mullets ; 
2 and 3, a squirrel sejant, cracking a nut, surmounted by a Cardinal's 
hat ; being the arms of Archbishop Bainbridge, created a Cardinal in 
1511, and poisoned at Rome in 1514. 

Three stars of six rays ; the mediaeval insignia of St. Wilfrid. 

On the south side, the last shield ; and that of 

Savage, Archbishop of York, 1501-7 — a pall imp. a pale fusily. 

On the west pillar of the northern colonnade are sculptured, also 
two contemporary shields : 



THE CATHEDRAL, 



1st. Three mill picks, two and one — Pigot of Clotherholme. 

2nd. A bugle-horn, belted and garnished ; being the arms of the 
town. The letters rippon now interspersed are here omitted, but 
the belt is studded with bosses, similar to those of silver, on that 
worn by the Serjeant-at-Mace in procession. Randal Pigot was the 
Wakeman in 1471. 

The font, an octagon of blue marble, supported by a shaft and 
splayed base of the same mystical form, is coeval with the present 
nave, and stood in its canonical, but inconvenient, situation, at its 
western extremity, until 1722, when it was removed to that end of 
the south aisle. 




BAS-RELIEF ON A TOMB IN THE SOUTH AISLE. 

Near the font, and contiguous to the outer wall, will be observed 
an Altar-tomb covered with a slab of grey marble, on the horizontal 
surface of which is sculptured, in low relief, the representation of a 
man and a lion in a grove of trees; its romantic allusion being 
rendered more tantalising by a black-letter inscription, which is 
irretrievably defaced on the vertical stone below. A century 
ago, tradition recounted that it covered the body of an Irish Prince, 
who died at Ripon, on his return from Palestine, whence he had 
brought a lion that followed him with all the docility and faith- 
fulness of a spaniel ; but the precatory position of the man induces 
me rather to suppose that the sculpture is in memory of his con- 
.sequent providential deliverance from the ferocious animal, whose 
attitude is indicative of fear. 

Near the north-west pier of the central tower is a monumental 
bust, and quaint inscription, commemorating Hugh Ripley, the last 
Wakeman and first Mayor, who died in 1637 ; restored, after its 
destruction by the Quixotes of the Civil War, by Mr. Harvey, at the 
expense of the Corporation, in 1725. 

It is much to be regretted that the fall of the southern and eastern 



38 EIPON. 

sides of the Lantern, or St. Wilfrid's Tower, previously to 1459, 
should have deprived us of the effect of its four elegant Romanesque 
arches, springing from an altitude little less than forty feet. Though 
the eye will be offended by the mixture of the Perpendicular with the 
original style, and especially, on entering the church, by the obtrusion 
of its south-western pier, it is some consolation that this defection in 
the design, or rather in the Chapter funds, has preseiTed such an 
interesting specimen of art as the remnant of Archbishop Roger's 
tower. On the face of the western piers opposite the nave, there 
remain, at about the height of 28 feet, two brackets, for the support 
of the original rood beam, which must have formed a most con- 
spicuous object on entering the church. 

The Transept demands particular attention from the architectural 
antiquary, as it presents, in all but the eastern wall of the southern 
member, a specimen of imperfectly developed Early English work, 
which, by comparison with the two transepts of the adjacent Abbey 
of Fountains, will alone afford a valuable illustration of the progress 
of architectural design in the latter half of the twelfth century. 

Though the pointed arches of the eastern aisle, and the triforium 
above, with its germ of double lights and tracery, apparently give 
to the interior of this part of Roger's church a more developed 
character than the exterior ; yet, in its round and flat trefoils, its 
lintels, its alternating round and pointed arches, a strong attach- 
ment is still manifested for the Romanesque; which must here 
have been considerably increased, when the original flat roof 
neutralised the upward aspiring tendency, which was the soul of the 
Gothic style. This may be also observed in each end of the tran- 
sept, where the three bays are not continued on one plane upwards 
to the roof, but are each crowned with a semicircular head rising 
from the shafts that divide the windows of the clerestory. 

I need not, unfortunately, warn an observer that the groining of 
the Transept is a recent work ; nor that its character is aggravated 
by grafting new capitals on the old shafts, in a style and position 
wholly inconsistent with the old design. 

In the aisle of the North Transept — the original groining of which, 
still lingering with the square bay and fiat dividing arch, merits 
notice, on account of its early character — was formerly the Chantry 
OF St. Andrew ; the piscina, a round trefoil aperture, with a pro- 
jecting basin, remaining in the south wall. This chapel was also 
the burial-place of the Markenfields of Markenfield, near this city ; 
but no other memorial of them now remains in it, except a fine 



THE CATHEDEAL. 



39 



altar-tomb of Sir Thomas Markenfield, a warrior in the time of 
Richard II., and Dionisia his wife, daughter of Sir William Fitz- 
william, of Elmley. He is vested in a suit of complete armour, 
and wears a collar, which, on being recently cleaned, exhibits the 
design of a park-pale and a stag couchant, above the elongated, but 
depressed, pales in front. His arms (argent) on a bend (sable), three 
bezants, are sculptured on his breast, and on the hilt of his richly- 
decorated sword ; as well as repeated, impaling Fitzwilliam and 
Miniot, in a series of 15 shields, graven round the tomb, commemo- 
rative of the alliances of his powerful and chivalrous race. 

There has been removed from the north-east angle of this chapel 
that noble altar-tomb, of unusual height, without the rails, on which 
are placed the effigies of Sir Thomas Markenfield and Elenor his 
Avife, daughter of Sir John Conyers of Hornby Castle. On the 
champ or filleting of this tomb is the following memorial, in defaced 
and obscure characters, which consanguinity with the persons com- 
memorated has alone furnished me with patience to explain. 

?^tc tacmt tontas m'l%ncfflli in'lrs ct tirnor uxor (ejus tile ofttjt prt)ma 
mmc' maij amto li['nt mcrlcch-xnbij q' fuit smrsctjalhts tsti' billc tt 
kurWjt malljtiie ct tlmor [obijt] fa" iic mem' ntaij a° i'ni incccc°liiri"J. 



lirM- 



iii;irii|iijfjfij,f,, 




TOMB OF SIR THOMAS MARKENFIELD, 1497. 



40 EIPOK. 

The arms on the sides are, a saltire ; a chevron ; a cross flory 
for Ward of Givendale ; a niaunch, for Conyers ; Markenfield ; 
and Roos. 

The Markenfield Chapel has been used since the seventeenth 
century as the burial-place of the Blackets of Newby ; and, among 
several tablets to their memory, contains a cumbrous pile, recently 
restored, in honour of Sir Edward Blacket, Bart., who died in 1718, 
and is represented in a recumbent position, with two of his wives 
standing by him. The inscription is diffuse, but fortunately 
genealogical. 

A Stone Pulpit, of Early Perpendicular character, and unusual 
form — inasmuch as it is without a stem — stands by the entrance to 
the north aisle of the Choir. It has evidently been removed from 
another position, though it has been originally attached to a wall or 
a pillar. 

The destruction of the east and south sides of the great tower, 
about the year 1459, caused the renovation of the contiguous side 
of the transept, in massy Perpendicular character, which may be 
usefully contrasted with the original Early English mode of treat- 
ment, in the corresponding member of the north transept. 

The AisLK of the South Transept has been, immemorially, 
the sepulchral chapel of the Lords of Studley Royal, and as such is 
vaulted below. Here, among many of their less renowned ancestors 
and descendants, rest Sir William Mallorie, one of the Council of 
the North under Queen Elizabeth ; Sir John Mallorie, who defended 
Skipton Castle for King Charles, in the grand rebellion ; his grandson 
John Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his son William 
Aislabie, Auditor of the Imprest, and Member of Parliament for 
Ripon sixty years. 

It will be almost needless to observe that the memorial of 
Mr. Weddell, at the end of the south transept, is designed after 
the Choragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens. The bust is by 
NoUekens, and the tripod, on which it is placed, was modelled from 
an antique in his noble statue gallery at Newby, 

The stone Screen at the entrance of the Choir was erected when 
the Perpendicular piers between which it is placed were renewed, 
after the ruin of the tower, about the year 1459 ; but whether to 
replace another, cannot at present be ascertained, since the Choir 
may have been previously prolonged to the rood screen between the 
western piers of the tower. The present work is 19 feet high, and 
presents the arrangement, simple in outline, but elaborate in detail. 



THE CATHEDEAL. 41 

of a doorway having four niches on each side, a tier of twenty-four 
smaller niches above, and a cornice bearing shields with rests, that 
appear to have been coloured and charged. On the lower pedestals 
are shields, bearing a cross flory, for Ward of Givendale ; three mill 
picks for Pigot ; a chevron between three mulletts, for Pudsey ; 
three billets ; and the mark of a merchant. The folding doors, 
adorned with elaborate tracery, are a good example of their style. 
They bear, carved on shields, a mitre ; three mascles ; three stars 
of 5 rays ; a sword in pale ; two keys in saltire, surmounted by a 
regal crown, for the See of York ; and a cross of Calvary raguled. 

The organ, above this screen, usurped, in 1833, the place of one 
constructed, on the spot, by Gerard Schmidt, in 1695 and 6, and 
accounted one of the sweetest-toned in the kingdom. The diapasons 
of the great organ were of rich, full, inimitable melody ; but there 
was no swell, and only eighteen stops. The whole of its choir-organ 
comprehending the open and stop diapason, principal, dulciana, and 
flute, are fortunately retained in the present instrument, which was 
built by Mr. Booth of Leeds. 



THE SAXON CRYPT, OR "ST. WILFRID'S NEEDLE." 

Before quitting the nave, an antiquary must not forget to examine 
the far-famed Crypt under the Central Tower, the position of 
which, and therefore of the whole of Roger's Church, it has 
directly influenced. After a narrow and inconvenient passage of 45 
feet from the nave, he will arrive in a cylindrically-vaulted cell, 
7 feet 9 inches wide, 11 feet 3 inches long, and 9 feet 4 inches high, 
dark and cheerless as the grave. As it is all but destitute of those 
indicia by which its precise antiquity might be determined, a wide 
scale of chronology has been applied to it, and some have supposed 
it to have been originally a Roman sepulchral vault ; in imitation 
of which it has indeed been constructed. By the comparison, 
however, of its ground plan, with that of a crypt at Hexham in 
Northumberland, it will become evident that both these crypts w"ere 
built on the same very peculiar plan, and in the same mode of 
construction ; and that as we know, on the authority of Richard 
Prior of Hexham, that Wilfrid introduced a crypt of this remark- 
able character into the Conventual Church of Hexham, it is 
reasonable to conclude that this also was of his foundation. Yet, 
since Leland has proved that the Monastery of Ripon did not 



42 EIPOK. 

occupy the precise site of the present Cathedral, this crypt has, 
doubtless, not been in immediate connexion with the Conventual 
Church, but with another of Wilfrid's churches, now forgotten. The 
annexed ground-plan will explain the arrangement of the crypt better 
than any other description I can adopt. It may, however, be added, 
in its illustration, that in consequence of the subsequent construc- 
tion of the piers of the tower, it is uncertain whether the passages 
remain on their original plan. That the western portion of the 
passage from the nave has been disturbed, is evident, indeed, both 
from the masonry of the walls, and an early monumental stone, 
bearing a plain cross, that forms a portion of the roof. It may be 
added, too, that the space at the west-end of the chapel is covered 
by a semi-vault rising towards the east, which has originally carried 
the stairs of the superincumbent altar, and that the doorways, 
corresponding in size and form with those at Hexham, are but rude 
apertures in the wall, each covered by a lintel, in which the semi- 
circular heads are gained. The niches also are but plain recesses, 
with semicircular heads. One in the western wall has the addition 
of a deep basin in the base, and others, a funnel-like aperture 
behind the arch, as if to carry oiF the smoke of a lamp. " The 
needle " has been formed by perforating the niche 13 inches wide 
and 18 inches high, on the north side, through the thickness of 
the wall to the parallel passage behind, said to ascend to the porch, 
in the choir screen, behind the sub-dean's stall. 

The purposes to which this very singular place has been suc- 
cessively applied, are not certainly ascertained — though there 
seems no doubt but that originally it was intended to serve as a 
place of retirement, humiliation, penance, and prayer. Camden 
was told, within memory of the Reformation, that females were 
drawn through the needle as an ordeal of their chastity — the 
culprit being miraculously detained ; or, as Fuller M'ittily observed, 
" They prick'd their credits who could not thread the needle." As 
far, however, as the contraction of space was concerned, the frailest 
of the frail might have rioted in intrigue unconvicted. A conscious 
reluctance to assume the necessary prostrate position was, I appre- 
hend, the real difficulty. 

As it is very evident that the " Needle " is but an enlargement 
of one of the original niches of the Crypt, it may be presumed 
that its purpose, whatever it may have been, has been devised at 
a period long subsequent to the construction of the building, when 
anxiety prevailed in the religious houses of exhibiting miraculous 



THE CATHEDEAL. 



43 



agency through the intervention of their patron saint, or of some 
notable person connected with their foundation. The manner in 
which this purpose was developed, is, however, in this case, very 
peculiar, and may have been derived from an extremely ancient 
heathen superstition, which ascribed miraculous powers, though 
generally of a sanitary nature, to certain objects, such as cloven 
rocks and ash trees, through which the patient was to pass ; the 
practice being perhaps symbolical of a " second birth, whereby a 
living being is ushered into the world free from those impurities 
and imperfections incorporated with a former life." 




S ca-ie of feet 



Although a knowledge of the legerdemain practised by our 
Canons will support the belief of an ordeal more absurd than that 
which Camden has recorded ; it was, perhaps, through its medium 
as a confessional, that the Needle mortified the spirit rather than 
the flesh ; — the penitent kneeling by the narrow orifice he had 
reached from the nave, while the priest sat near the expanding 
embouchure, to which he descended from the choir. 

Lastly, this convenient peculiarity of ingress and egress might 
also render the vault a fit sepulchre, whence the host, or image of 
Christ — removed on Good Friday from the nave, a type of the 
church militant on earth — would be brought up into the choir, the 
emblem of the church triumphant in heaven, on the anniversary of 
the morn of the resurrection. 



44 EIPOX. 



INTERIOR OF THE CHOIR. 



On emerging again to the nave, the visitor must turn to the ele- 
gant and spacious choir, where many interesting considerations will 
arise. Its proportions, I apprehend, are defined by Archbishop 
Roger's plan ; but of his main superstructure, three bays on the 
north side and a pillar on the south alone remain, though the outer 
wall of the south aisle proves the prolongation of the work eastward, 
within a few feet of its present extremity. It may, however, be 
assumed, as well from its unusual length as from a fashion of the 
style— exemplified in the kindred Abbey of By land — that the original 
clerestory was shorter by one bay than the present, and that the 
aisle circulated round its eastern extremity. The three bays ojjpo- 
site Roger's work were renewed after the ruin of the contiguous 
angle of the centre tower, about 1459 ; the rest of the choir, on both 
sides, having been renewed, in the Decorated style, in the former 
half of the fourteenth century. This work — elegant in spirit though 
simple in detail — comprehends the Presbytery ; though its special 
character is now only indicated by a double suite of tracery in the 
clerestory windows, an arcade round the basement of the outer wall, 
and the elevation of the floor. Its most powerful effect, however, 
was doubtless contributed by its stained glass ; if we may judge 
from those fragments of the East window which escaped destruction 
in the great rebellion, and were collected into the twelve circular 
compartments placed in the tracery by Dean Dering, in 1724. St. 
Peter with his golden key, and St. Paul with his sword, occupy the 
upper quatrefoils of the sub-arches. Below the former is St. Andrew 
tied to his cross, and to the south of him, a female habited in green, 
with a blue mantle, holding a cross with fleurs-de-lis at the points. 
The date of this decoration, and consequently the completion of the 
Presbytery, is fixed after the year 1340, by two shields that remain 
in their original position in the spandrils of the sub-arches, the one 
being that of England within a bordure of France, and surmounted 
by a label of three points azure ; the other that of France, azure, 
sem6 de lis, or ; as assumed by Edward III., but much confused in 
a recent repair. 

Besides a remarkable assimilation of the Early English, Deco- 
rated, and Perpendicular, all of which meet in the third bay from 
the east end on the south side ; the Choir presents also another 
remarkable spectacle in the arrangement of the windows in two 



THE CATHEDRAL. 45 

tiers. This, however, formed no part of an original design ; but 
was gained by glazing the traceried apertures of the triforium, the 
roof of which was then settled to the vaulting of the aisles. Unin- 
formed of this fact, the student has often gazed in astonishment on 
the two pointed lights of the round-headed arch, divided by a 
slender column, and ornamented with those sharp cusps, which are, 
in reality, shown from the more modern mullion behind. 

The partial fall of the great tower, about 1459, occasioned ulti- 
mately the uniform re-decoration of the choir throughout; and nobly 
did the Canons accomplish their design. Elaborate lattice work of 
exceeding beauty screened it from its aisles, and thirty-two canopied 
stalls occupied the western extremity and the space of two inter- 
columniations on each side. When the roof was burst in by the 
shattered spire in 1660, the storied tabernacles of the damaged stalls 
on each side were repaired by an incongruous work ; and subse- 
quently, from time to time, the lattices have been carelessly and 
ignorantly mangled, to form the gallery fronts, and portions of the 
pews below. One portion in the north aisle, with a singular and 
contemporary iron scutcheon, contains a fragment of the inscription 
recorded by Dodsworth, that was " cut in wood about St. Wilfrid's 
Quire," and the date mcccc''Iiiii''[b]tj''. At the eastern extremity of 
the south range was the ancient throne of the Archbishop of York, 
still identified by a carved mitre behind. The space of two stalls 
was comprehended for this purpose in 1684 ; but the unseemly 
canopy was supplanted in 1812 by the present throne, which was 
executed by Archer of Oxford, at an expense of 200/., defrayed by 
Archbishop Markham. The shield on its ancient finial, bears three 
estoiles, the insignia of St. Wilfrid, supported by angels, and sur- 
mounted with a mitre ; the date below, "Eitna ll'm 1494, the latest 
on the woodwork of the stalls, indicating the time of their com- 
pletion. The poppie above, fashioned as an elephant bearing a 
military tower, with its defenders, is one of the most singular of its 
class of ornament ; and the fidelity with which the animal is 
detailed is very remarkable. The stall opposite to the Bishop's 
throne is occupied by the Mayor, as it probably was by the Wake- 
man, since it is larger and more adorned than the rest of the adjoin- 
ing range. A shield charged with two keys in saltire, one of the 
armorial bearings of the See of York, adorns the finial on which the 
Mace has been supported since 1646. Of the western range, the 
Dean occupies the first stall on the south ; the Canon in residence 
that of the late Sub-Dean on the north ; and the rest are assigned 



46 EIPON. 

to the Canons by labels over each. The Archdeacons of Richmond 
and Craven occupy lateral stalls, and the rest on the north are used 
by the members of the Municipal Corporation. The appurtenant 
subsellia display a number of curious and satirical conceits, in the 
majority of which more is meant than meets the eye, or I can now 
attempt to explain. 

The Altar-screen was erected in 1832, after a design by Mr. 
Blore ; a large painting by Streator, serjeant-painter to Charles II., 
representing an Ionic colonnade, having previously occupied its 
place. On removing it, a panelled screen of wood, rudely painted, 
was discovered, and behind it the original reredos of Melton's work, 
which should have been allowed to remain, though it was merely 
a continuation of the arcade, which may still be seen in the aisles. 
The altar-stone, with its five crosses, was found below the present 
table. 

The original Piscina of the high altar was displaced by the 
erection of the present screen ; but that of a chantry at the adjoining 
end of the south aisle remains, in the shape of a basin resting on a 
cylindrical shaft. In this aisle, too, a remarkable Lavatory, near 
the Vestry door, must be noticed. 

Three Sedilia, with a curtailed Piscina, occupy the whole of the 
second intercolumniation from the east, and have richly crocketed 
ogee heads, resting on square pillars, the surfaces of which are 
adorned with the Tudor rose. The grotesque capitals and quaintly 
devised cusps, are interesting specimens of our proficiency in 
sculpture at the close of the fifteenth century ; though the general 
design betrays the decline of sound architectural principles. It will 
be needless to warn a practised eye that the upper portion is an 
unauthorised " restoration." 

From indications in the wall, it is evident that there was a chapel 
in each aisle of the Presbytery ; that on the north side having con- 
tained, I apprehend, the Shrine of St. Wilfrid.* 

The elegant wooden bosses of the Perpendicular Vaulting of the 
CiioiR, which was broken in by the fall of St. Wilfrid's spire in 
1660, are replaced in the modern groining ; and viewing them from 
the west, thus appear : a King seated ; a Bishop seated ; the An- 
nunciation of the Virgin ; the good Samaritan ; a King and a Bishop 
seated ; the angel expelling Adam and Eve from Paradise — a group 
where motion is wonderfully expressed ; a King seated ; a Bishop, 

* On the Nortbe Syde of the Qiiiere, S. Wilfridi reliquiaj sub arcu prope mag. 
altare sepultie, nuper sublata. — Lei. Itiu. v. 8, p. 22. 



THE CATHEDRAL. 47 

in exquisitely cast robes, giving the benediction ; and an aged 
man conducting a female to the door of a church. 



CHAPTER-HOUSE AND VESTRY. 

There is attached to the south aisle of the Choir a building, or 
rather a part of a building, which, being evidently of unusual 
antiquity, and unconnected either in style or plan with Roger's 
Church, has been long confidently supposed to be the original Church 
of Wilfrid, or, at least, the structure erected by Odo about the year 
950. I should contentedly concur in this latter proposition, if each 
characteristic part of the building had not satisfied me that its age 
is subsequent to the Norman Conquest ; and historical evidence 
concurred to warrant the supposition. I suggest, therefore, that it 
is the south aisle of a Collegiate Church which the devastation that 
ensued in these parts after the year 1069, demanded from Thomas, 
Archbishop of York, who was Lord of Ripon at the time when the 
Domesday Survey was made, and died here, on the 18th of 
November, 1100. The rest of that structure was doubtless destroyed 
by Archbishop Roger, when he commenced his " Basilica," this 
portion being retained, as convenient for the Chapter-House and 
Sacristy ; — the arcade by which it joined its original structure having 
been closed and flanked by the wall of the Choir. This arcade, 
which has no capitals to the square piers, and but a chamfered 
margin, is hid from a casual observer in the Chapter- House, and 
encumbered in the Vestry by two buttresses, formed in the Decorated 
period, to balance the intended vaulting of the Choir. The south 
and east sides of the building only are detached from Roger's 
Church, and present a peculiar appearance ; since the Crypt, which 
runs its whole length, has, in consequence of the favourable 
declivity of the ground, a tier of lights, which appear prominently 
in the elevation. During or very soon after Roger's time, the 
Chapter- House, and probably the Vestry, was vaulted with plain 
chamfered ribs, to cylindrical pillars, and the freestone buttresses 
applied to the southern wall ; but in the Vestry all traces of this 
work have disappeared, except some brackets, perhaps in con- 
sequence of the intrusion of the Decorated buttresses. The Vestry, 
however, presents a more interesting appearance in its apsidal 
termination ; where, on account of the contiguity of the Choir, the 
central window is accompanied only by a light on the south, below 
which is a square recess and a small round-headed piscina, with a 



48 EIPON. 

projecting basin. The altar does not appear to have been of stone, 
but its platform, a concrete mass, bounded by wrought stone, 
remains attached to the wall. 

On the south side of the Vestry is a closet or small apartment, 
formed in the lateral apse, which has been, originally, a kind of 
Sacristy, and, subsequently, a receptacle for the valuables of the 
Church. On its west side is a recess, communicating with the 
churchyard, which has contained a sink or lavatory, and, from 
the trace of an arch in the exterior of the Norman wall, appears 
to have been formed for that purpose. 

From the Chapter-House, there is a descent to that portion of 
the Crypt now used as a sepulchral vault ; but our survey of this 
interesting portion of the Church must be obtained from its con- 
tinuation in the celebrated '' Bone-Housk," to which, since its 
division, an entrance has been formed from the chuixhyard ; 
whither the visitor must now proceed to complete his inspection of 
the exterior of the Church. 

The head of the Saxon Cross now placed over the Rone-House 
door, was found in 1832, in taking down a wall of the time of 
Henry VIII., at the east end of the Choir. It has been supposed to 
be the head of one of those seen by Leland, in the garth of the 
Abbey ; but the Minster-yard might, with equal probability, have 
furnished such an object. 

From the vaulting of the Crypt, still unshrouded by the bones 
that have been amassed around, the age of the structure is definitely 
ascertained. It is supported by square pillars, each with a plain, 
concave capital, on which rest the semicircular arches, of nearly 
equal width. These rise from pillar to pillar and pier in a rect- 
angular form, and have been strengthened in the Perpendicular 
period, when additional substance has been added to the pillars 
themselves. The windows, 3 ft. 7 in. high, and 9 in. wide, retai 
the double splay which has been supposed to characterise the Saxon 
style, and flange inward considerably ; but all further examination 
of the Crypt is prevented by the piles of bones, that extend nearly 
half its width on the north side, and for three feet beneath our 
feet. 

Above the Vestry and Chapter-House, a chapel, yet called the 
Lady Loft, was erected about 1482. It is reached by a flight of 
stairs from the south transept, which also served a Chantry chapel 
over the west end of the choir aisle. There were, formerly, two 
divisions of the Lady Loft, of which, the eastern was used as the 



THE CATHEDRAL. 49 

Collegiate Library; but the partition was removed in 1840, and the 
whole apartment is, at present, appropriated to that purpose. 

The foundation of the Library dates only from 1624, when Dean 
Higgins bequeathed his collection of books to the Chapter, and laid 
the foundation of a design that has not received the attention it 
deserves. Such books as the Canons possessed before the Reforma- 
tion were probably deposited in the Vestry, where Leland, a little 
while before, was shown the Life of St. Wilfrid, by Peter Blesensis, 
of which he has preserved some passages in his Collectanea. None 
of these books can be identified in the present collection; nor, 
indeed, can any be certainly ascertained to have belonged to the 
Chapter before the bequest of Higgins. 



Before the Reformation, Leland observed " that the Prebendaries' 
Houses " the sites of which may still be defined, " be buildid in Places 
nere to the Minstre, and among them the Archebishop hath a fair 
palace. And the Vicar's houses be by it in a fair quadrant of square 
stone buildid by Henry Bowet, Archebishop of York." These six 
members of the church having been formed into a body corporate 
by King Henry V., had ordinances made for their government 
by the Archbishop, when he allotted them a part of his Manor 
Garth for the site of their house, in 1450. In the time of Queen 
Elizabeth, when a college was projected at Ripon, this house was to 
have formed part of the fabric, and was repaired for that purpose ; 
but before 1625, it was almost entirely destroyed, and a new house 
erected, which became the Deanery. 

The Palace or Manor Hall, where the Archbishop of York had a 
residence — most probably from the Saxon, but, certainly, from the 
Norman times — stood on the north side of the nave of the Cathe- 
dral, in a site which retains its Saxon appellation of " The Hall- 
yard." It was " a fair Palace " at the time of the Reformation, but 
went so far to decay after that period, that at the request of the 
Corporation in 1629, Archbishop Harsnet ofi^ered "to bestowe his 
great howse, or some part thereof," as a workhouse for the poor. It 
probably was not long used for this purpose ; but became so dila- 
pidated that, within recollection, little more than a portion sufficient 
for holding the Quarter Sessions and Manor Courts was left, and this 
was ruthlessly and wantonly destroyed in 1830 — when the present 
Court House was erected on the site. 

The Park appurtenant to the Palace, and in Leland's time 



50 EIPON. 



" vj miles in cumpace," is on the north side of the city, beyond 
the High Common ; but having been long divided into farms, 
retains little trace of its original condition, except the remains 
of the Keeper's Lodge— a building in the Perpendicular style, incor- 
porated with one of the farm-houses. 



TRINITY CHURCH. 



There are eleven chapels of ease appurtenant to the cathedral and 
parish church, but this only within the city. It was built and 
endowed by the late Rev. Edward Kilvington, M.A., at an expense 
of 13,000/., bequeathed for Christian purposes, by his relative, 
Thomas Kilvington, Esq., M.B., a noted medical practitioner in this 
city. The first stone was laid on the 28th of July, 1826, and 
such expedition was used that it was consecrated by the Archbishop 
of York on the 31st of October, 1827. It is of cruciform arrange- 
ment, and designed by the late Mr. Thomas Taylor, whose 
successful practice in the delineation of our ancient and genuine 
architecture should have suggested something better than this 
absurd and incongruous compilation. The .spire is the most toler- 
able portion, and forms a conspicuous object at a considerable 
distance. The edifice contains 1000 sittings, and a powerful organ, 
built by Renn and Boston, of Manchester. On the north side of the 
chancel is a faithful bust of the late Rev. E. Kilvington, by Mr. 
Angus Fletcher, which, " in grateful remembrance of his name and 
work, his friends and hearers caused to be erected." He died 
January 28th, 1835, aged 68 years. 

A house was erected, by subscription, for the incumbent of this 
church, on the opposite side of the road, in 1849 ; and may, at 
least, suggest the existence of a mode of building different to that 
which has hitherto disfigured the many beautiful sites around the 
citv. 




THE EPISCOPAL PALACE, 

A srAcious stone building, designed in the Tudor style by Mr. 
Railton, occupies a slight eminence about a mile north-west of 
the city, commanding agreeable prospects down the valleys of 
the Laver and the Ure, as well as of the cathedral and the 
city. The foundation stone was laid by the Bishop of Ripon, on 
Monday, the 1st of October, 1838, and the structure was prepared 
for his reception in the autumn of 1841. 

The appurtenant demesne, which adjoins the ancient manorial 
park of the Archbishop of York, contains one hundred and nine 
acres, and was gratuitously ceded by Mrs. Lawrence, the lessee of 
that prelate, who also provided the building stone. 

A small chapel had been originally included among the apart- 
ments of the Palace, but a disposition having been manifested by 
the inhabitants of a neighbouring hamlet to attend the services that 
were more particularly intended for the Bishop's household, the 
late Archbishop of York, who had witnessed the inconvenience of 
their number, and their inability regularly to visit the parish 
church, munificently placed the sum of 3000^. at the disposal of the 
Bishop of Ripon, wherewith to erect a more suitable structure. A 
site having been accordingly chosen on the east side of the Palace, 
the foundation of a suitable structure, designed by Mr. Railton, in 
the Perpendicular style, was laid on the 24th of June, 1846, 



E 2 






52 / BIPON. 

. -,■»'•■"' 'i V." 

PlJBtIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS. 

The Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, founded by an Arch- 
bishop of York who was forgotfeh so early as 1341, stands at the 
northern extremity of Stanimergate, not far from the river Ure. 
The Almsrhou'ses were rebuilt in 1674 : but the Chapel, on the 
opposite side of the way, remains as it was left at the Reformation. 
The original structure of the twelfth century, containing a rudely- 
ornamented Norman doorway, has been repaired during the Peipen- 
dicular era, when the screen and its appurtenant blanched stalls 
were constructed. A low side-window of this date in the middle 
of the south wall has been partially walled up. Besides these relics, 
there is the stone high altar remaining in its proper position, and 
on its south side a smaller slab in the floor that appears, from the 
incised crosses, to have served a similar purpose, probably before 
the elongation of the chapel. The pavement before the altar, 
11 feet long and 3 feet 8^ inches wide, is worthy of attentive con- 
sideration ; for if it is not actually Roman, as is generally supposed, 
it has certainly been copied from a work of that period, in the 
twelfth century. 

The Hospital of St. John the Baptist, nigh Bondgate Bridge, 
owes its origin to Thomas, the second Archbishop of York, who 
was translated to that See in 1109. The Chapel, which seems to 
have been built about the time of Edward II., and is in nowise 
remarkable, was much enlarged in 1812, and converted into a 
National School. Two poor women, recipients of the charity, 
reside in an adjacent cottage. 

The Hospital of St. Anne, in High St. Agnesgate, of the 
foundation and structure of an uncertain benefactor about the time 
of Edward IV., accommodates eight poor women with apartments 
and a small pension. Its little Chapel, in a state of picturesque 
decay, retains the piscina and altar-stone, on which tradition asserts 
that the ransom of a Scottish king was paid. A stone bearing the 
arms of Sir Solomon Swale, of South Stainley, with the date 1664, 
has been walled into the window towards the street. The burial- 
ground is now used as a garden. 

Jepson's Hospital, in Water Skellgate, was founded in 1672, by 
Zacharias Jepson, of York, apothecary, and a native of this place, 
who bequeathed 3000?. to feoffees to purchase lands for the main- 
tenance and education of twenty orphan boys, or poor tradesmen's 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS. 53 

sons, of the town of Ripon, who were to be admitted at the age of 
seven years. This laudable institution has subsequently received 
benefactions, but the injudicious investment of the original funds 
had caused the number of boys to be reduced to ten. 

The Free Grammar School, in St. Agnesgate, and on the south 
side of the church -yard, was first founded in 1546, by King 
Edward VI., but incorporated by Philip and Mary, 27th June, 1555, 
and endowed chiefly from the revenues of certain chantries in this 
church and parish. Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of Canterbury ; 
Bishop Porteus ; and Archdeacon Thomas Balguy, were among the 
eminent men who have been instructed here. 

The Town Hall, on the south side of the Market-place, was 
built from a design by Wyatt, in 1801, at the expense of Mrs. 
Allanson, of Studley. In the Assembly Room, which occupies the 
upper front story, is a full-length portrait of Mrs. Allanson ; and 
in a lower room, now used as a News Room, a characteristic bust 
in marble, of Mrs. Lawrence, the niece of Mrs. Allanson, by Mr. 
Angus Fletcher. The eastern part of the building is occupied by 
the Town-clerk. 

The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, on Coltsgate Hill, was built 
in 1777 ; that of the New Connexion of Methodists, in Low Skell- 
gate, in 1795. The Temple, or Calvinist Chapel, in 1818 ; and a 
Chapel for Primitive Methodists, in Priest Lane, in 1821, which 
was enlarged in 1841. 

A great local accommodation was acquired in 1833, by the 
institution of the Public Rooms in Low Skellgate. A commodious 
mansion, with a garden extending to the river behind, was 
first purchased by shareholders, and appropriated chiefly to the 
establishment of a Circulating Library and a News Room ; but the 
project having been encouraged, another building, containing an 
apartment 52 ft. by 26 ft., and suitable for general public assemblies, 
was erected in addition in 1834. 

The Mechanics' Institution was established 26th February, 
1831, and associated with a literary society in 1844. Its advan- 
tages having been long misunderstood and neglected, it was held in 
an insufficient and hired apartment until 1849 ; when, on the 
manifestation of a more enlightened perception, an independent 
building was erected by subscription at the east end of the Public 
Rooms. Besides apartments for the resident secretary, it contains 
a Class and Lecture Room, 40 ft. by 20 ft. ; a Reading Room 24 ft. 
by 20 ft. ; and another Class Room 20 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. 9 in. There 



54 EIPON. 

are, at present, upwards of two hundred members, of whom a few 
of the most active and zealous have succeeded, within the last four 
years, in establishing five kindred institutions in the neighbourhood. 

A National School for boys, conducted on Dr. Bell's plan, has 
been held, since its commencement in 1812, in St. John's Chapel, 
Bondgate; and another for girls, established originally in 1803, as 
a Sunday School, is kept in a building in High St. Agnesgate, 
erected by Mrs. Lawrence of Studley. There are also National 
Schools in connection with the Parish Church, Trinity Church, and 
the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. 

A Dispensary was commenced in Ripon as early as 1790, and 
has recently been conducted with a most beneficial result ; but, 
lacking sufficient endowment, it was held in a dwelling-house, until 
the bequest of 1000^. by the late Mrs. Lawrence was judiciously 
expended, in 1850, in the erection of a suitable building in Ferraby 
Lane. 

A joint-stock company established Gas Works here in 1830, and 
so provided a public convenience, which — with reference to the 
interests of the inhabitants — should have been anticipated and con- 
ducted by the Municipal Corporation. The capital of the company is 
divided into one hundred and eighty shares of 251. each, the holders 
of which have, at present, a favourable prospect of realising their 
speculation. The Gas-house is in Stammergate. 

It was left, also, to the enterprise of an individual to construct 
the Water-Works, by which a daily supply from the river Skell — 
raised in the mill at Duck-hill bank — is forced to taps in the main- 
streets, and such houses as may require it. 

A public Bathing House was erected on Skell-bank, by subscrip- 
tion, in J 812, and is supplied from St. Wilfrid's Well, which rises 
in a field a little to the west of it, and not far from the close where 
" the Gospel tree " stood. Its stream, however, as well as that of 
a spring on Borrage Green, had been protected and collected in 
stone basins, for public use, by Dr. Richardson, of Ripon, in 1758 
and 1762, being both of exceeding pure quality, and much frequented. 
There is, also, another valuable spring, called St. Helen's Well, 
about a mile from the city, by the side of the Leeds road ; and a Sul- 
phuretted Spa, which, though slightly impregnated, is not useless, 
at the north end of Stammergate. 

As early as 1736, the disadvantages of the inland position of 
Ripon, induced an enterprising party to attempt to render a portion 
of the River Ure navigable, and to form a canal from thence hither. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS. 



55 



at a period when such projects were but little regarded. After 
much discouragement, they succeeded in this undertaking by the 
aid of the celebrated Smeaton, and under the provisions of an act 
of Parliament obtained in 1767. The management was originally 
vested in Commissioners, but this system being unsatisfactory, 
another act was obtained in 1820, whereby the proprietors became 
a body corporate by the name and style of " The Company and 
Proprietors of the River IJ-re Navigation to Ripon." Under the 
provisions of an act of Parliament, which received the royal assent 
July 25th, 1845, the interests and property of this Corporation 
were transferred to the Leeds and Thirsk Railway Company. 

According to the enumeration made on the 31st of March, 1851, 
there were in Ripon and the appurtenant township of Bondgate, 
1513 houses, and 6160 inhabitants, being an increase of 2453 
inhabitants since the census of 1801. 





-c^^x-^'^ 






STUDLEY HALL. 



STUDLET EOTAL. 



In shadier bower 
More sacred and sequester'd, though but feigned, 
Pan or Sylvanus never slept, nor Nyrapb, 
Nor Faunus haunted. 

Milton. Par. Lost, B. 4. 705. 

1 N agreeable stroll through our western suburb, and 
the wooded copses that rise in gentle undulation 
from the banks of the Laver beyond, prepares our 
transition to the far-famed scenes of Studley Royal. 
A volume would be insufficient to discuss the diver- 
sified beauties with which it abounds ; and the utmost 
that can be attempted here is to state facts that may be useful to the 
inquiring eye, and become a memorial for the retrospective mind. 

For five centuries, the families of Aleman, Le Gras, Tempest, and 
Mallory, each of which produced men eminent and useful in their 
generation, enjoyed, successively, a domain which the potency of 
their neighbours forbade them to enlarge ; and found in their deep 
meads and waving" woods, a quiet and simple enjoyment, which 




THE GEOUNDS. 57 

until the dawn of the eighteenth century was not deemed capable of 
being transmuted to that source of intellectual gratification, in which 
countless thousands have since participated. John Aislabie, who 
from the rank of a country gentleman raised himself, by the vigour 
of his intellect, to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, was 
then possessed of Studley Royal in right of his mother, Mary, the 
eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Mallory, an heroic and 
loyal knight. He saw the rare beauties that nature offered in pro- 
fusion around his ancestral home, and, after he had exchanged the 
tumult of the political arena, for the sincerer pleasures and occupa- 
tions of a country life, nobly and energetically devoted himself to 
their development. The little copses that surrounded the antique 
manor house were changed into an extensive park ; diverging 
avenues supplanted intersecting hedge rows, the beck was expanded 
in a lake, the mansion was fashioned into correspondence with its 
noble accompaniments ; and lastly, but chiefest of all, a portion of 
the little valley of the Skell, that intersected his park, was trans- 
formed into a most delectable pleasure ground. William Aislabie, 
his only son, enjoyed the leisure of a long life in maintaining and 
extending what his father had done. His eldest co-heir, Mrs. Allanson, 
was precluded, by the delicacy of her health, from residing at 
Studley ; and on her decease, in 1808, it devolved, with the rest of 
her extensive possessions, on her niece and heir, Mrs. Lawrence, the 
late most benevolent proprietress ; than whom none could have 
tended them with a more liberal and faithful hand. On the decease 
of Mrs. Lawrence, in July, 1845, the whole of the estate at Studley 
became vested, by the provisions of her will, in the Right Hon. the 
Earl de Grey, one of whose ancestors married a sister of the 
Chancellor Aislabie. 

After passing through the village of Studley, and arriving at the 
Parr Lodge, the eye is restrained from excursion into the wood- 
lands by a noble Avenue of Limes, above a mile in length, that 
guides our path and directs the eye to An Obelisk, whence the 
towers of Ripon and Fountains may be seen in conjunction, with 
many other interesting and more distant objects. The Mansion 
House, which retains a fragment as early as the fifteenth century, 
may be seen whilst rising the hill, at some distance on the right ; 
but it is not shown to visitors. Comfort and convenience have been 
sought in its several alterations, rather than grandeur and effect ; 
but the home where so much talent and worth, for centuries, 
reposed, has not yet needed such a distinction, nor will cease to be 



SS STUDLEY. 

invested with a deep interest, so long as the purest benevolence and 
philanthropy shall command the homage of mankind. 

Midway the Park, we diverge to the left, down a Beechen 
Avenue to the little valley of theSkell, where the stream, conducted 
by a formal cascade with all due accompaniment of balcony and 
turret, expands into a Lake covering twelve acres. A number of 
domestic fowls enliven its expanse with their gambols and evolutions, 
while anon 

" The Swan, with arched neck 
Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows 
Her state witli oary feet." 

The banks rise swiftly from the water's edge, clothed with dense 
woods, through whose commingled beech and chesnnt shade we 
reach the gates ; where guides are in attendance from the hour of 
seven in the morning until that of five in the evening. 

The disposition of the grounds may be easily perceived. The 
original design of the Chancellor Aislabie, who commenced opera- 
tions about 1720, aided by his skilful gardener, Mr. William Fisher, 
was to contract the devious beck into a level parallelogramic canal, 
adorned with statues on its terraced banks, and bounded by dense 
hedges of evergreen which sheltered an ample alley, whence, through 
openings artfully contrived, a diversity of prospects could be ob- 
tained. A prudent and judicious respect for the old arrangement 
is still preserved, but modified so as not to offend modern hyper- 
criticism by its antiquated state. The extreme contraction of the 
valley, and the proportionate inclination of its declivity, favoured 
the design, and allowed the extension of walks through the luxuriant 
thickets above, whence a new and more extensive series of prospects 
could be obtained, and more natural beauties developed. An inter- 
change of scenery from a few hundred yards on each side of the 
river (crossed then, as now, at the rustic bridge) was thus, with the 
upper walks on the right, all that the adjacent demesne of Fountains 
allowed the projector to obtain ; but when his son, who, wisely 
relying on his own ability, often declined the officious offers of Kent 
and Brown, purchased the Abbey, he continued the walk from below 
Anne of Boleyn's seat, up the southern bank of the circling stream, 
and after circumventing that 

" Noble wreck in ruinous perfection," 

brought it down the opposite side of the valley, and so joined the 



THE GEOUNDS. 59 

old decorated grounds at Tent Hill, where he erected a temple, long 
since fortunately destroyed. 

With this rough outline we will proceed. After leaving the 
gates, shrouded in lofty and luxuriant trees and evergreens of stately 
growth, that remind us, especially when looking towards the balcony 
of the lake, of the incomparable Versailles, and many a delectable 
but ever-banished scene of our own " fair good lande," a bank of 
closely-shaven laurel first meets the eye, that would wander more 
willingly up a long and solemn glade that diverges from the valley 
called Kendall's Walk. From some invisible cause, few seem to 
have the agility to vault over the little bushes in front, in a manner 
equally satisfactory to themselves and their companions. 

By the side of one of those gigantic beeches, whose altitude is 
forgot while passing under their grateful shade, we have a glance of 
the Octagon Tower rising abruptly on the other side of the valley ; 
and, by the water below, a cast in lead of two Contending 
Gladiators. 

Still passing behind the dense wall of yew, with its lofty canopy, 
we are surprised by a prospect, set in a verdant frame, of the valley 
in its widest part ; the Temple of Piety in the opposite encircling 
wood ; the Moon and Crescent Ponds, and their accompanying 
statues of Neptune, Bacchus, and Galen. 

Our embowered path ends by the Bathing House, a little rustic 
building of two wings, one containing the Pool, the other the appur- 
tenant dressing-room. For many years a colony of bees have taken 
up their abode in the roof, and will be observed entering by the 
chinks of the slates. 

The uninformed lover of nature, as well as the scientific observer, 
will alike gladly halt on the declining lawn to view the noble trees 
that tower aloft before them in wonderful procerity and beauty. A 
Norway Spruce Fir, near the walk, and straight to the top, dis- 
plays luxuriance seldom equalled but in its native land. It is 132 
feet high, 12|^ feet in circumference above its roots, and would form 
an impervious shade to an assembly of at least fifty persons. 
Another fir nearer the canal, which canopies the statue of the Dying 
Gladiator, is 11 feet 2 inches in circumference, and equally symme- 
trical as its companion, which being more disengaged claims readier 
attention. A third, near the last, is but 8 feet in circumference. 
None of these, however, should disengage the eye from a Hemlock 
Spruce, of most graceful form and foliage, the stem of which has 
attained the height of 60, and the circumference of 7 feet. These 



60 STUDLEY. 

trees having been planted by the Chancellor Aislahie, about 1720, 
may be a useful criterion in estimating the growth of their species. 

The antique arrangement is now for awhile unperceived, and the 
murmur of falling waters attracts the eye from the parterres, and 
evergreens, and gi-oves that adorn the declivity, across which we 
now proceed towards the unruffled stream that flows from a cavern 
o'ercanopied with dense and luxuriant beech. 

The old "peeps" are soon resumed, and the first is a surprise, 
across a declining bank of laurel and yew overhung with more graceful 
foliage, down the long canal, and so to the great lake in the park — 
the Moon and Crescent Ponds, with their several terraces and 
statues filling the bosom of the valley on the right, and the Octagon 
Tower rising in the mid distance from a clump of firs. Soon after, 
we have another diversion through the laurels towards the statues 
of Hercules and Ant^us in contention, in the most contracted 
pass of the dell ; and a pillared Dome in the hanging woods 
beyond. 

Diverging, reluctantly, from the path rising through the woods 
towards the Abbey, but still canopied by 

" A covert of old trees, with tninks all hoar, 
But light leaves young as joy," 

we cross, to the opposite side of the valley, over a Rustic Bridge, 
where the stream is seen, gliding tranquilly through a verdant space 
adorned with terraces, and begirt with ancient trees. But, before 
we reach the other side of the valley, we stray into a wooded 
amphitheatre, filled with a translucent Lake, whose refreshing 
expanse, crisped by the circling breeze, mirrors but the embrowned 
shades of accliving woods, and the airy forms of an inconstant sky. 

Anon, and the eye that will be gladdened by nothing but Nature 
naked and unadorned, will peer joyfully through the thicket on an 
irregular pool, where circumambient boughs image their glistening 
spray, and lave in waters that seem black and bottomless as oblivion. 
It is called "Quebec," and on its little island is a Pillar to the 
memory of the gallant Wolfe, now hid in the tangled foliage. 

A few steps more and the expanse of the valley, in all its formality, 
yet, perhaps, in all its peculiar beauty, opens upon us near the 
Temple that rises in the grove by our side. The chief apartment 
being adorned with a mural basso-relievo of a female nourishing her 
captive father from her breast, the building is named the " Temple 



THE GEOUNDS. 61 

OF PiKTY." The bronze busts in the niches below contrast the cha- 
racteristic heads of Titus and Nero. 

Awhile, and the scene which has been so airy and vivid is sud- 
denly changed. Striking aside from the lawn into the wood, we 
wind up a toilsome path — by the sides of which, yews of no recent 
growth are rooted in the fissures of the shelving crag — and enter, at 
length, a subterranean Passage, hewn, partially, in the rock. It 
seems neither long enough nor dark enough for the majority of its 
youthful visitants, but a local difficulty was thus pleasantly 
overcome. 

From the " Octagon Tower," which during our ramble we have 
often seen, and now reached at last, we have a bird's-eye view of 
many of the objects we have visited. Studley Hall, too, is seen 
on the right; and, from the opposite window, How Hill,* with its 
mimic tower, rears its majestic head, begirt with verdurous shade. 

Though now passing a long and artless avenue of beech, unfor- 
tunately mingled with the grisly fir, we seem to tread the woodland 
slopes of the park, and are gladdened, through the slanting boughs, 
by its lowing herds and coursing groups of agile deer; we turn 
again, ere long, down a lofty aisle 

" Of beechen green, and shadows numberless," 

where the fitful murmur of the rushing stream reminds us of our 
elevated position. An opening towards the Park presents a view of 
MoRKERSHAW LoDGE ; and another, of the Roman Monument, impend- 
ing high above the Skell. At length, we turn on the opposite side to a 
circular pillared dome, jutting into the valley, dedicated to Fame, 
and on all other sides similarly difficult of access. 

Pursuing hence the ample path, which noble oaks "high over 
arch'd embower," snatching, nevertheless, through the airy spray, 
occasional glimpses of the coming " Fountain dale," the guide, with 
innocent triumph, will, at last, throw open the doors of " Anne 

* This hill, which rises in a conical form sufficiently high to form a remarkable 
object at the distance of more than twenty miles, is worthy of a visit from those whose 
time is not limited, and would consider themselves repaid by an almost boundless 
view of the great plain of York. It was anciently called Herleshow, as probably from 
being the place where the Saxon Earl of the county held his Court, as from its early 
possession by one who bore the name of Ilerle. The monks of Fountains had on 
the top of this hill a Chapel dedicated to St. Michael, which from an inscription 
walled into the present little tower, erected by Mr. Aislabie in 1718, appears to have 
been rebuilt or repaired by Abbot Huby, between 1494 and 1526. 
Soli IBco tionor ct Qlorla. ffl. J^. 



62 



STUDLET. 



Boleyn's Seat," and unveil to the amazed and enraptured eye a 
scene where pen and pencil must fail. 




FOUNTAINS AbBKV, FBOM ANNE OF BOLEYN S SEAT. 



Now, all attention is, naturally, centred in the Abbey, and, 
fortunately, there is nothing previously to distract the eye. We begin, 
immediately, to hasten down a precipice, arched, deeply and pic- 
turesquely, in the woods ; and, on arriving at the path by the side of 
the stream, will perhaps scarcely glance at the diversity of scenes 
which the union of the dense woods with their liquid mirror presents. 

Yet awhile may fancy beguile us with merry visions of the past. 
On this glade — doubt who can — the " Curtal Friar " of Fountains 



rOUNTAIKS ABBEY. 63 

encountered Robin Hood, whom, as the old ballad goes, he at length 
threw into the Skell, and so grievously belaboured, that Robin, for 
once, turned coward, and called in the aid of his fifty stalwart 
yeomen ; also that then the Friar whistled out as many of his good 
ban-dogs, but that Little John let his arrows fly so fast among them 
that the Friar, who 

" Had kept Fountain-dale, 
Seven long years and more," 

was brought to his senses and a truce. Before we reach the Abbey, 
we shall be seduced to halt on a shady knoll ; and while reclining 
by the crystal Well that still bears the Outlaw's name, may chant 
the " Rime of Robin Hod " in one of the sweetest spots associated 
with his name. 

Tradition points to a large bow and arrow, graven on the north- 
east angle of the Lady Chapel, as a record of this dire affray. They 
bear no affinity to the symbols used by the masons, but have, I 
fancy, induced the report, mentioned by Ritson, that Robin's bow 
and arrow were preserved at Fountains Abbey. 



FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 




LTHOUGH we have, some time ago, entered within 
the Close, we now pass into the immediate pre- 
cinct of the Abbey, and feel at once disclosed "a 
captivating scene of landscape and architectural 
beauty, a highly-interesting subject of contemplation, 
and a source of that pensive and pleasing melan- 
choly in which the mind sometimes loves to indulge." Before, 
however, we proceed to a particular survey of the structure, it will 
be necessary to premise a few facts illustrative of its origin and 
history. 

The site of the Monastery was granted, in 1132, by Thurstan, 
Archbishop of York, out of his Liberty of Ripon, "to certain 
monks who had separated themselves from what they deemed the 
lax discipline of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary, in York, and 
resolved to adopt the Cistercian rule, which was then becoming 
famous from the reputed sanctity and daring enthusiasm of 



64 STUDLET. 

St. Bernard. Richard the Prior, with the sub-Prior, ten monks of 
St. Mary's, and Robert, a monk of Whitby, retired, in the depth of 
winter, to this secluded and, at that period, wild and uncultivated 
dell, where their territory was defined by the Archbishop, who had 
previously maintained them in his house. At first, their only 
shelter was under the impending rocks ; but, after a while, they 
thatched an enclosure under an umbrageous elm, in the middle of 
the valley, which was even flourishing at the dissolution of the 
Abbey. Some yew-trees, also, near the ruin, are traditionally said 
to have sheltered these enthusiastic men. Having endured for two 
years such hardship as at length to Subsist on boiled leaves and 
herbs, they prevailed on St. Bernard to remove them to one of the 
granges of his Abbey of Clair vaux, in Champagne ; but the sudden 
accession of great wealth not only diverted them from their purpose, 
but laid the foundation of that magnificence of which such ample 
testimonies remain." 

The history of the Abbey is minutely related in the " Monasticon," 
from the narrative of Hugh, a monk of Kirkstall ; written between 
the years 1225 and 1247, at the request of John, Abbot of Foun- 
tains, from the dictation of the venerable monk, Serlo, who was present 
at the departure of the brotherhood from St. Mary's, at York, and 
had witnessed most of the chequered scenes he has so pathetically 
and graphically recorded. Yet, as he was more anxious to recount 
the spiritual trials and triumphs of his brethren than the secular 
history of their house, we find few allusions to the progress of the 
structure, or to the scientific acquirements of those by whom it was 
promoted. We learn, however, that after the election of the Abbot, 
Henry Murdac, to the See of York, about 1146, some partisans of 
his deposed predecessor, disappointed in their expectation of finding 
Murdac here, set fire to the Monastery, which, with half of " the 
Oratory," was consumed. The convent, aided by the neighbouring 
gentry, immediately repaired an injury which, however extensive, 
had doubtless been confined to the inflammable portions of the 
building ; but, since every part of it had been erected within 
fourteen years, existing remains cannot aid us in the investigation. 
During the remainder of the twelfth century, the work of building 
never can have ceased, though it is probable, from our knowledge 
of the characters of the Abbots Fastolph, and his successor, Robert, 
that in their time it progressed with unusual vigour. On the 
decease of Ralph, the seventh Abbot, in 12U3 — a period when there 
was such an unusual number of monks in the house, that there was 



FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 65 

no fitting place for the performance of their devotions — John, his 
successor, a stout-hearted Yorkshireman, who maintained in the 
retirement of the cloister the politic temper of the world, projected 
the erection of a choir, to the astonishment — nay, the indignation 
— of his contemporaries. He lived only to lay the foundation 
and raise some pillars, but he left a kindred spirit in John Pherd, 
who succeeded him in 1211, and after a diligent superintendence of 
eight years was elected Bishop of Ely. The Convent then availed 
themselves of the ability of another John, a Kentish man, who, with 
a vigour of mind like that of the original projector, brought the 
design to a conclusion. He not only instituted the nine altars, and 
added a "painted pavement," but, in prosecution of an original 
project, constructed the southern part of the great cloister, and built 
the Infirmary, with the Hospitium, or house of entertainment for 
strangers, on the south side of the first court. He died in 1247, 
having probably seen the buildings of the Abbey nearly completed. 
" A period of subsequent poverty and distress was followed by 
great prosperity in the next century. Many persons of power and 
opulence purchased, by large donations, a sepulture within the walls 
of the Abbey. Favoured by popes, kings, and prelates, with various 
immunities and privileges, and enriched by a succession of princely 
gifts, Fountains Abbey became one of the wealthiest monasteries in 
the kingdom. The church ranked amongst the fairest structures of 
the land, and the possessions attached to it comprehended a vast 
extent, embracing the country from the foot of Pennigent to the 
boundaries of St. Wilfrid, of Ripon, an uninterrupted space of more 
than thirty miles. Besides many other wide domains, the lands in 
Craven contained, in a ring fence, a hundred square miles, or sixty 
thousand acres, on a moderate computation." 

After obtaining a high reputation for sanctity, and the possession 
of great power and immense wealth, the Monastery was surrendered 
by deed, enrolled 26th November, 1539, by Marmaduke Bradley, 
the thirty-third Abbot, and Suffragan Bishop of Hull ; a man who, 
by the character of " the wysyste monke within Inglonde of that 
cote, well lernede, and a welthie felowe," was recommended to 
Cromwell by the visitors, Layton and Legh, to fill the office which 
Abbot Thirsk, whom they thought " a varra fole, and a miserable 
ideote," had privately resigned into their hands. Bradley had then 
an annuity of 100^., Thomas Kydde, the Prior, another of 8^., and 
the thirty monks who were priests, allowances of a similar nature, 
varying in value from 6^. 135. 4d. to 5/. each ; the whole amounting 



66 STUDLET. 

to 277^. 65. 8d. ; an acknowledgment, certainly liberal, of their 
interest in the estates of the Abbey, which in 1535 had been 
certified to the Commissioners to be worth 998^. 65. 7^d. annually, 
including the tenths. These terms, however, from the changed 
value of money, the nature of tenures, and many other causes, have 
now become difficult of interjaretation ; and a juster idea of the 
nature and extent of the establishment of the Convent may be 
formed from the fact, that, at the time of the dissolution, they 
possessed 1976 head of cattle, 1106 sheep, 86 horses, and 79 swine. 
They had also stored in their granges at Sutton, Morker, Haddock- 
stanes, Swanley, and Brimham, 117 quarters of wheat, 13 of rye, 
134 of oats, and 192 loads of hay, besides the temporary provision 
of 160 loads of hay, and 128 quarters of corn, which they had in 
the park and granaries of the Abbey. 

Whilst the King found it politic to promise the application of the 
revenues of some of the Abbeys to their legitimate purpose of 
religion and education, the revenues of " Fontayne " and of the 
" Archdeconry off Rychemond " were assigned for the endowment 
of a Bishopric of Lancaster ; but his evil genius prevailed, and, on 
the 1st of October, 1540, he sold the site of the Abbey, with its 
franchises, and the greater part of its estates, to Sir Richard 
Gresham, father of the munificent founder of the Royal Exchange. 

From Gresham's representatives, who had previously alienated 
the extensive estates in Craven, the site of the Abbey, M'ith its 
privileges, some of its adjacent granges, and a considerable tract of 
land in Nidderdale, were sold, in 1597, to Sir Stephen Procter of 
Warsell, an ambitious and speculative character, who pulled down 
the Abbot's house and the minor offices of the Abbey, to obtain 
materials for the noble house which he built near the west gate. 
His family having been burthened, after his decease, by his pecuniary 
embarrassment, the property was sold by his widow, in 1623, to 
Sir Timothy Whitingham, from whom it passed, two years after- 
wards, to Humphrey Wharton, Esq., of Gillingwood. From him it 
was purchased, in 1627, by Richard Ewens of South Cowton. Esq., 
whose daughter and heiress carried it into the family of Messenger 
of Newsham, who resided at Fountains Hall until John Michael 
Messenger, Esq., in 1768, sold the Abbey, with its franchises and a 
small estate, for 18,000/., to William Aislabie, Esq., of Studley, 
maternal grandfather to Mrs. Lawrence, the late possessor, and 
nephew to the ancestress of the present owner, the Right Hon. the 
Earl de Grey. 



FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 



67 



Before the excavation of the Abbot's House* — undertaken by Lord 

* The following is the succession of the Abbots of Fountains. For facility of 
reference to inscriptions and records, the enumeration used by the monks themselves 
is adopted; but it must be observed that it excludes Maurice and Thorald, who, I 
presume, were only deputies to Archbishop Murdac, and also Alyngs, Otley, Thornton, 
and Frank. 



ABBOTS NAMES. 



PERIOD OF 
ABBACY. 



WHERE BURIED. 



HOW VACANT. 



Richard, ex- Prior of St. I 
Mary's, York . . ' 

Richard . . . 

Henry Murdac, elected ( 
Archbishop of York ) 

Maurice of Rivaux . . 

Thorold of Rivaux . 

Richard Fastolph, Prior i 
of Clarevall . . ( 

Robert, Abbot of Pipewell 

William, Abbot of New- j 
minster . . . ) 

Ralph Haget . 

John de Ebor. 

John Pherd, afterwards 
Bishop of Ely . 

John de Cancia . 

Stephen de Eston. . 

William de Allerton 

Adam 

Alexander . 

Reginald 

Peter Alyngs 

Nicholas . 

Adam Ravensworth 

Henry Otley 
Robert Thornton . . 
Richard Bishopton 
William Rigton 

■yv alter C'oxwold . 
Robert C'opgrove 
Robert Monkton 
William Gower, E.D. 
Robert Burley . . 
Roger Frank, intruder 
John Ripon 
Thomas Passelew . 
John Jlartin 
John Greenwell, D.D. 
Thomas Swinton . 
John Darnton 
Marmaduke Huby 
William Thirsk, B.D. 
Marmaduke Bradley 



1132—1139 At Rome 



1139—1143 
1143—1153? 
AboutSmths 
About 2 yrs 

1153—1170 

1170—1179 

1179—1190 

1190—1203 
1203—1211 

1211—1219 

1220—1247 
1247—1252 
1252—12.58 
125S— 1259 
1259—1265 
1265—1274 
1275—1279 
6 mouths 
1280—1284 
1284-1289 
1289 

1289—1,3-}-° 
1311—1316 
1316—13.36 
1336-134f 
1346—1369 
1369—1383 
1383—1410 
1410—1414 
1414— 143| 
1434—1442 
Seven weeks 
1442—1471 
1471—1479 
1479— 149j 
1494—1,526 
1526—1.53^ 
153^-1539 



Clarevall . 

York Cathedral 



Chap. H. Fountains 

Chapter House F. 

Chapter House F. 

Chapter House F. 
Chapter House F. 

Ely Cathedral 

Chapter House F. 
Chapter H. Vaudy 
Chapter House F. 
Chapter House 
Cliapter House 
Chapter House 
Chapter House 
Chapter House 
Chapter House 
Chapter House 
Chapter House 
Chapter House F 
Chapter House F 
Chapter House F 
Chapter House F 
The Church F. 
Lady Chapel F. 
Choir Fountains , 



Nave of Church F. 
Niive of Church F. 
Nave of Church F. 



Death. 

Death ? 

Resignation. 
Resignation. 

Death. 

Death. 

Death. 

Death. 
Death. 

Promotion. 

Death. 

Death. 

Death. 

Death. 

Death. 

Death. 

Res. or Dep. 

Death. 

Deatli. 

Resignation? 

Resignation? 

Death. 

Death. 

Resignation. 

Death. 

Death. 

Resignation. 

Death. 

Expulsion. 

Death. 

Resignation. 

Death. 

Resignation. 

Death. 

Resignation. 

Resignation. 



F-2 



68 BTUDLET. 

de Grey — a visitor, approaching the Abbey from the garden, was 
unable to see the greater part of the outside, before he was conducted 
through the interior of the building. This inconvenience has 
recently been very judiciously obviated by the direction of the path 
along the kitchen bank on the south side, where, from its elevated 
position, hitherto buried in brushwood and rubbish, by far the most 
picturesque views of the building are not only obtained, but also a 
bird's-eye view or synoptical idea of the plan and relative position 
of Ihe apartments, before proceeding to a particular survey. 

On leaving, therefore, Robin Hood's Well, and rising immediately 
above the recently discovered foundations of the Abbot's House and 
domestic offices of the Abbey, we see the several parts of the con- 
ventual church, Lady chapel, choir, transept, tower, and nave, 
successively developed ; nearer us — and parallel with the south end 
of the transept — the chapter house, distinguished by the double 
tier of round-headed windows ; next, but placed in a contrary 
direction towards the river, comes the Frater-house. After that the 
kitchen, with its tall chimney, and the court-house above. Then 
the refectory, with its graceful lancet lights ; then, receding to the 
cloister-court, the buttery and its little garth ; and, lastly, in con- 
nection with the main structure, the vast range of the dormitory 
above the cloisters, stretching nearly from our feet to the nave of 
the church. Turning in a contrary direction, we may observe, on 
the slope of the hill above, a part of the wall which bounded the 
site * of the Monastery ; the intermediate broken ground having 
been chiefly occupied by the Common Stable, Guests' Stable, 
Barns, Kilns, Tan-House, Bark-Mill, Dove-Cotks, Forge, and 
other similar offices. Of these, the Mill — to which large granaries 
were formerly annexed — is alone left entire, and will be observed 
immediately before us, shrouded in tall trees, and running on, 
merrily, as in days of yore. 

On a little knoll, above the mill, stands the remnant of the Yew 
Trees, that are said, by tradition, to have sheltered the monks 
before the erection of the Abbey ; which, in some measure, they 

• The walled close of the Ahhey, which was a parish of itself, contained above 
thirty acres. Of these the site of the building, with its orchard, gardens, and several 
adjacent garths, occupied, at the dissolution, twelve acres on the north side of the Skell ; 
the rest, which lay on the south side, was divided into the East Applegarth, in which 
was a fish-pond ; three West Applegarths of twelve acres ; and the Kitchen bank of 
three acres, covered with brushwood. But besides the close, there was on its south- 
west side a pleasant park of above two hundred acres, of wliich the better half was 
covered by woods and fish-ponds. It still retains its name, and, though divided into 
farms, much of its ancient and picturesque character. 



a%^2y GROaa 



THE abbot's HOnS K. 

Il^aa-saae irom the Cloisler Ccui't 

2 The Great Hall 

3. Rereclory 

i Hu^t'^<■y■r 

J Stoip Houses 

6 Tlip Chap.-1 

7 rUeliil.li.-n. 
S.Asli Tar'l 
9. Coal ajid Asl. lai.) 
lOTheHilfhwo U 




drcu-rui Plan, het'r 
Dip Pai'U .vi//' 



Hi-Rif ilfP.fft: 



rOUNTAINS ABBEY. 69 

may be said to have survived. Their original number is forgot. 
From the appellation of " the Seven Sisters," by which the trees are 
always known, they may not have lately exceeded that number ; 
though one of coeval antiquity stands at the south end of the Abbey 
bridge near the mill. Dr. Burton, writing in 1757, remembered 
seven trees, but remarked that one of them had been blown down 
a few years before. One, and the greater part of another, fell in 
the great gale of the 7th of January, 1839. Another rears but a 
withered sapless trunk. The rest vegetate with astonishing vigour, 
and last year bore their accustomed supply of berries ; though their 
giant stems are but mouldering skeletons. 

Candolle, deriving his information from Pennant, who stated, 
that in 1770 one of them was 1214 lignes in diameter, supposes that 
they were then upwards of twelve centuries old ; but, as we cannot 
ascertain when they ceased to expand, and the process of decompo- 
sition commenced, this computation probably falls far short of their 
actual age. The tortuosity of their rifted boles forbids an accurate 
measurement, but one of them is at least 25 feet in circumference, 

Immediately on crossing the Skell by a picturesque bridge, built 
in the thirteenth century, we come to the Gate-House,* now reduced 
indeed to a mere fragment, but bearing, in the traces of the apart- 
ments on each side, abundant testimony of its former magnitude 
and importance. 

The two gabled ruins, passed soon after entering what was 

* At this point, however brief the time at the visitor's disposal may he, he should 
turn aside a few paces to Fountains Hall, which is not generally included in the 
guide's route, unless requested. It stands at a very short distance from the Abbey 
gate, on the side of a densely wooded and precipitous declivity, and was built by 
Sir Stephen Procter of "Warsell, in the time of King James I., at an expense of 3000Z., 
though he ruthlessly quarried liis stone from the walls of the Abbey. Its venerable 
aspect, however, accords so well witli the scenery, that it mitigates " the regret 
with which the antiquaiy would othenvise contemplate so wide a scale of spoliation." 
The chief front sleeping in a summer's sun, with its picturesque gables and balcony, 
and statues, and glistening 

" Bay windows, goodly as may be thought," 

is peculiarly imposing and beautiful. The arrangement of the principal apartments 
is still undisturbed ; but they contain nothing i-emarkable, except the dining-room, 
which is hung with tapestry, representing the Rape of Proserpine, Jupiter and 
Ganymede, and Vulcan receiving directions from Thetis about the making of armour 
for Achilles. In the Hall also — now called the Chapel — is a sculpture over the fire- 
place, of the Judgment of Solomon, and in its great embayed window, the armorial 
bearings of the Procters and their connexions, displayed in confused and fast-fading 
glass. Over the chief entrance to the house, are the crests of Sir Stephen and Honor 
his wife, and between them a motto, difficult of application, at least, to his secular 
condition. 

KIEN TROVANT, GAINERAT TOVT. 



70 



STUDLET. 



formerly called the first court, appear to have been the Hospitium, 
which, in the records of the Abbey, is said to have been built by the 
Abbot, John de Cancia; though, either from the rule of the order 
enjoining a severe character of architecture, or the inferior conse- 
quence of the building, displays none of the scientific progress that 
was rapidly developed in his time. In the basement story of the 
eastern house, 73 feet long and 23 feet wide, and vaulted from a row 
of five pillars, is an apartment which may have been the dining- 
liall of the guests ; and in the upper apartments of each, a domestic 
character is indicated by fire-places, with flues curiously constructed, 
in the gables. 

To the east of these buildings stands a wall containing the chief 
doorway, and three upper windows of a structure built above the 
Skell, which may have been the Infirmary, erected also by John de 
Cancia. The other walls are destroyed ; but on a recent excavation 
of such parts of the floor as had not fallen into the river, it was 
found to have had three aisles, divided by four arches on each side. 




The main fabjic of the Abbey now engages attention, and the 
West Cloister, being the nearest part of it, will, perhaps, be first 
entered. It is not less than 300 feet in length, but was built at two 
diff'erent periods ; the upper portion, extending from the nave of 
the church to the porter's lodge, being of the same transition 
Norman character, very curiously shown in the buttresses ; the 
rest, forming the ambulatory, or " Novum Claustrum" built by 



FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 71 

John de Cancia. Along the outside of the upper part, which was 
once divided into store-houses, has been a pent-house, communi- 
cating, like the cloister, by a large and handsome doorway with the 
church. The large octagonal stone basin, in the east aisle, has origi- 
nally been a lavatory, but converted into a cider mill. 

Above the cloisters, and extending its whole length, was the 
Monks' Dormitory, divided into forty cells by wooden partitions, 
which left a passage down the middle, lighted by a large window at 
the south end, and, by night, by a great cresset or lamp. At the 
south-west corner are the walls of two spacious gard-robes, com- 
municating with the dormitory, and placed conveniently above the 
river. The dormitory is still approached by the spacious and original 
stairs winding over the porter's lodge ; but the staircase by which 
the monks descended to their nocturnal offices in the church, is 
unfortunately walled up. 



THE NAVE. 

The nave — a good plain example of the Tiansition Norman peiiod 
— exhibits only, on each side, both of the clerestory and the aisles, 
a succession of eleven bays, divided by broad and shallow pilas- 
ters, and occupied by as many round-headed lights without shaft or 
moulding. On entering at the great western door, the effect is 
exceedingly solemn and impressive ; the pointed arcade, resting on 
massy columns 20 feet high and 16 feet in circumference, without 
the relief of a triforium intervening between them and the plain 
splayed windows above. The great west window was introduced 
by Abbot Darnton, in the place of two or three plain Norman 
lights, surmounted probably by a round one in the gable, and has a 
gallery in the base, whence processions might be viewed. Above 
the outside of this window is a niche supported by the figure of a 
bird, holding a crosier, and perched on a tun, from which issues a 
label inscribed " itxn 1494." If the bird represents an eagle, it 
may, as the symbol of St. John, perhaps signify the Christian 
name of Darnton ; but if the sculptor thus took leave to represent 
a thrush, a rebus on the name of the founder, Thurstan, was also 
intended. 

Each bay of the aisles has been covered by a pointed but trans- 
verse vault, divided by semi-circular arches, of which the imposts are 
placed considerably lower than those of the pillars to which they 



72 STUDLET. 

are attached. Nearly the whole of the eastern half of these aisles 
has been divided by lattices into chapels, of which there are some 
indications in the painted devices and matrices of their furniture, 
traceable on the piers. There has been, also, a screen across the 
nave at the seventh pillar eastward. 

THE TRANSEPT. 

The transept was built in the same transition period of archi- 
tecture as the nave, but manifests so little progressive or pointed 
character, that it might have been considered, particularly outside, 
as pure Norman. At its intersection with the nave, was, originally, 
a tower, though elevated probably not more than one of its squares 
above the roof. All trace of it, however, is now lost, except a frag- 
ment of its arches, which has been pointed and moulded, at the 
south-east and north-west angles. It was, probably, the insecure 
condition of this tower, incapable of such considerable improvement 
as, unfortunately, was effected at Kirkstall, which led to the erec- 
tion of the present magnificent substitute ; since Abbot Huby was 
obliged to disfigure the transept by the erection of a massy buttress 
against its south-east pier, and also to construct an arch under that 
of the adjacent aisle of the Choir. The corbels of its hood mould- 
ings display, on shields. Three Horse Shoes, the arms of the 
Abbey, and his initials, i^ p?., surmounted by a mitre enfiled by a 
crosier. 

Two melancholy chapels, divided by a thick wall and covered 
with a barrel, but pointed, vault, abut on the east side of each wing 
of the transept, and occupy a space, which, if we may judge from 
the like arrangement at Kirkstall, would not have been transformed 
into the less monastic form of aisles, even at a more advanced 
architectural period. Their gloomy character has also been increased, 
at the north end, by walling up the arches of the transept in order 
to give increased stability to the new tower. In the chapel that 
adjoins it — dedicated, it appears from a mouldering inscription, to 
St. Peter — there has been placed, within recollection, under a broken 
monumental arch in the north wall, the efSgy of a cross-legged 
warrior in chain-mail, bearing a shield, charged with a lion rampant, 
and said, by tradition, to represent the great Baron Roger de 
Mowbray, who died at Ghent in 1298, and was buried in this church. 
There is placed also in this chapel a sculptured tablet representing 
St. John, and another of an evangelist, undistinguished by a symbol, 



FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 



73 



found many years ago in the Abbey, but only recently retrieved from 
the building in which they had been subsequently walled. 

The dedication of the next Chapel is shown to have been to 
St. Michael the Archangel, by a weather-beaten inscription over its 
entrance : "Slltarc s'rt micljaclts arrij'. In its south wall — part of the 
original or first Choir — is a large, round-headed piscina, with a 
recess or locker in the side ; and at the east end some faint indication 
of the wooden altar screen may be observed. 

The South Chapels have been partitioned, by lattices, from the 
transept, and that adjoining the Choir has gained an entrance also 
from its aisle, in the Perpendicular period, when it was also briefly 
elongated and improved by the insertion of a large east window. 
The piscina has been of wood. 

The next and last Chapel has been but recently cleared of the 
rubbish of its vault, which was re-set with most rigid attention to 
the original work. Sufficient remains of the tesselated pavement 
were found, during the excavation, to show that it had been of 
John de Cancia's time, as, indeed, may be infened from the fi'ag- 




ments of the border still attached to the wall. Within the muti- 
lated piscina — large and round-headed like that in the North Chapel 



74 STTJDLET. 

— has been recently placed a large sculptured tablet, representing 
the Annunciation of the Virgin, which had been removed from the 
Abbey, and walled into a neighbouring cottage. It is rude and late 
in style, but the conventional expression is worthy of observation. 
The inscription is the Salutation of Gabriel, "Sue maria plena iJ'n's tccu'. 

Near the entrance of this Chapel, is, also, placed part of the 
monumental slab of one of the Abbots. In its present inconvenient 
position, it is difficult to decipher the worn and mutilated circum- 
scription ; but from the occurrence of the word robrvtus, and the 
character of the design, I presume, it has commemorated Robert 
Burley, the twenty-fourth Abbot, who died 13th of May 1410. 

At the south end of the transept, and occupying the space between 
it and the Chapter-house, is the Vestry ; a narrow and gloomy 
apartment, built at the same time as the Chapter-house, with which 
there was a communication, now walled up. Above it was the 
Sacristy, where a fine round-headed Lavatory was, recently, cleared 
from rubbish, with which the apartment is yet filled. It was 
approached, like the Library and Scriptorium over the Chapter- 
house, by the doorway in the south wall, which has now become 
partly inaccessible, in consequence of the destruction of the wooden 
stairs. 

THE TOWER. 

This majestic and scientific specimen of the Perpendicular style 
is placed at the end of the north transept, since its introduction 
could not have been, conveniently, effected on the site of the old 
tower, and, at the west end of the nave, would not have grouped 
as effectively with the chief buildings of the Monastery. It is 
composed in a grand and bold outline, unfrittered by minute detail, 
or elaborate decoration. The height is 166 feet 6 inches, and the 
internal area of the base about 25 leet. With the exception of the 
floors of the several chambers, pinnacles, glass, and the tracery of a 
single window, which fell out many years ago, the goodly structure 
remains as perfect, sound, and stable, as when the builders left it ; 
and, for anything that appears to the contrary, will rear its noble 
head above the dell, and defy the storm, when many proud struc- 
tures of to-day shall be crumbled to their base. On fillets above 
and below the belfry windows are inscriptions in the Tudor black 
letter, boldly relieved, and also round the top of the tower ; but this 
series is so weather-beaten as to be illegible. 



FOUNTAINS ABBET. 75 

ON THE EAST SIDE. 

lSmEt!tcci0 tt caritas et saptmcia [1] ct [2] graciarum accio honor. 
&o\i Hco i'fju I'po [3] {jonor [4] ct g'lia in s'cla s'clor. 

NORTH SIDE. 

!St btrtus ct fortitutio lico nostro [5] in [6] secula seculorum amen. 
Soli ico i'iju I'po Jjonor ct gl'ia in s'cla s'clor ante'. 

WEST SIDE. 

Kcgi autcm seculorum [7 8] immortali inbisili 

Soli ico i'lju r'po Ijonor ct [9] gl'ia [10] in s'cla s'clor. 

SOUTH SIDE. 

Soli iJco ijonr ct gloria [11] in [12] secula seculorum amen. 

The numerals introduced into this copy indicate the corresponding 
position of armorial shields in the inscriptions, thus charged : — 
1, Three Horse-shoes, two and one, the arms of the Abbey ; 2, a 
Maunch, surmounted by a bend, Norton of Norton, Conyers, and 
Sawley ; 3, a Cross fiory, between a Mitie and Key erect, in chief, and 
a Key erect and Mitre, in base ; 4, tlie arms of the Abbey, as the 
first ; 5 and 6, Norton, as before ; 7 and 8, the Abbey and Norton ; 
9, as the third ; 10 and 11 , the Abbey ; 12, Norton, and individually, 
perhaps. Sir John Norton, grandfather to old Richard, the memorable 
promoter of the " Rising in the North." 

Above the lowest west window is an angel standing on the canopy 
of a vacant Niche, holding a shield, on which is carved a mitre 
enfiled with a crosier, and the letters jM. 3^., the initials of Marma- 
duke Huby. The date 1494, the year in which he was elected to 
the abbacy, is on the bracket of a niche above the basement window 
on the east side. In a niche on the north side is a crowned figure 
holding a pen in his right, and a book in his left hand ; in another 
above is a mitred figure sitting, holding a crosier ; and in one above 
the ridge of the transept roof a gowned but bare-headed effigy, no 
doubt of Huby, holding a crosier in his right, and a book in his 
left hand. 

THE CHOIR. 

The outer walls of the Aisles are of elegant and powerful design. 
Each bay contains, indeed, only one plain lancet light, but, as it 
is placed in the interior, under an arcade of one pointed, between 
two round-headed, members, a remarkable efi"ect is produced by 



76 STUDLET. 

the archivolt of its adjuncts ; which, resting one extremity on the 
single columns flanking the light, descend on the opposite side, with 
the curve of the groining, to a shaft, capped at an inferior elevation, 
and clustered with that which has carried the ribs of the vault. A 
very appropriate and picturesque eifect is contributed also by the 
deeply recessed and trifoliated arcade which supports this arrange- 
ment, though it is now much diminished, by the absence of the grey 
marble shafts and the suppression of its base below the sward. 

During a temporary excavation in 1840, the foundation of the 
rood-screen at the west end of the choir was observed ; and, within 
its porch, a marble gravestone, 9 feet 6 inches long, 4 feet 8 inches 
wide, and 7 inches thick. It had been richly inlaid with brass, 
and, no doubt, covered the Abbot, John de Ripon, who died at the 
Abbey Grange, at Thorpe Underwood, on the 12th of March, 1435, 
and is said, in the records of the Monastery, to have been buried 
before the entrance to the choir. 

The tesselated pavement of the high altar is doubtless part of the 
" pictum pavimentum' that was bestowed on the church by Abbot 
John de Cancia between the years 1219 and 1247 ; and, therefore, 
an early and valuable example of this elegant mode of decoration. 
The simple patterns, divided in the upper and chief platform into 
three chief compartments, are formed of many-shaped tesserae of 
red, black, and yellow, which have been relaid, I am informed, with 
proper attention to the original design. 

The reredos behind the high altar presented, both to the choir 
and Lady Chapel, but a continuation, — prolonged, also, for one 
bay or more on each side, — of that beautiful arcade which circum- 
scribes the Lady Chapel and the choir. Part of its materials are 
now in a modern and obtrusive gallery, under the east window, and 
more of it will be found in the apartment now leading to the 
Court-room. 

Not far from the north-west corner of the altar is a stone coffin, 
6 feet 3 inches long, which is usually said to have contained the 
remains of Henry, Lord Percy, of Alnwick, who died in 1315. As, 
however, the herald Tong, who learned on his visit to the Abbey, in 
1530, that he was buried " before the high auter," observed that 
" also in the said quere lyeth buried the Lord Mowbray," it is as 
probable that the coffin was covered by the effigy of Mowbray, now 
in the North Chapel, more particularly since it is remembered to have 
stood against the wall opposite to it. 



rOTJNTAlNS ABBEY. 



THE LADY CHAPEL. 



This most beautiful portion of the Abbey Church was completed 
by Abbot John de Cancia, who had superintended, probably, the 
greater part, if not the whole, of its erection. " This addition to 
ecclesiastical structures, though not common, is productive of great 
magnificence, for the eastern facade thus formed here extends 150 
feet in length, and presents a specimen of Early English architecture 
— plain and somewhat massive in its general appearance, but vdth 
many well-proportioned details. Some additions which have been 
made to this portion of the Abbey are, however, as late as the end 
of the fifteenth century. The great east window and appurtenant 
buttresses display the magnificence of the latest style of Gothic 
architecture, which, guided by judgment and taste, are combined 
with the earlier style of the adjoining portions of the building. 
It had nine lights and a transom, but exhibits now a void space of 
60 feet in height, and 23 feet 4 inches in width. The other, and 
original, windows of this front are adorned, outside and in the lower 
range, with banded shafts, and divided by semi-octangular and 
unusually massy buttresses. 

Besides the east window, one of large dimensions, but plain 
detail, has been inserted, at the same period, in each gable of the 
Lady Chapel. Below that in the southern elevation, the keystone 
of one of the three Early English lights has received a Sculpture 
which shows these innovations to have been made in the time of 
Abbot Darnton, who presided over the house from 1478 to 1494. 
It is indeed a rebus on his name, displaying the bust of an angel 
holding a tun, with the word ticvn inscribed on its breast. Above 
this is a large bird, apparently an eagle — as seen before above the 
nave — and a scroll, which bears the same allusive character in its 
legend, Jj'n'If fOUtcS lj*n0 {Benedicite fontes Domino). In the 
inside of the Chapel, the same keystone bears an angel holding a 
blank shield, a mitred head, and the figure of a pilgrim, or perhaps 
St. James of Compostella, standing on an encircled serpent, the 
emblem of eternity. The angular keystone of another lancet light, 
at the north-east angle, displays a head entwined with snakes, — a 
symbol of the Evil principle, or more particularly of Pride ; and in 
the interior, the figure of an angel, holding a scroll, inscribed 
^nna I30mtnt 1483. 



78 



STTJDLET. 



On receding to either end of the Lady Chapel, the amplitude of 
its dimensions, the graceful, aspiring, heavenward tendency of its 

component parts must 
captivate and astonish 
even a vulgar and 
careless mind. Not 
a little of its peculiar 
effect results from 
those lofty arches 
which span it in pro- 
longation of the clere- 
story of the choir, 
sustained on each side 
only by an octagonal 
pillar, 2 feet 5 inches 
in diameter. Their 
cylindrical bases are, 
unfortunately, buried 
in rubbish ; and much 
of the original effect 
is also lost by the 
destruction of the 
marble shafts that enriched the angles, and were banded midway 
in the elevation. 

In this transept or Chapel, nine altars were instituted by John 
de Cancia, but none of their dedications have, as yet, been 
ascertained. Their sites — divided either by lattices or wainscot — 
may, however, be traced by the indications of their wooden piscinas 
in the wall, and one, of stone, remaining at the south end, is a curious 
example of its age. 




THE CLOISTER COURT. 

From a door at the south-east angle of the nave, a few modern 
steps descend to a quadrangular court, formerly environed with 
a penthouse or cloister, of which a portion of the round-headed 
arcade remained in the last century. The north and west aisles 
were occupied, I believe, by the carrels where the monks studied, 
and the place where the novices were taught ; the other must 
necessarily have been used as passages. 



FOTTNTAINS ABBEY. 79 

The area of the court — about 128 feet square — is still surrounded 
by the buildings of the Monastery. The north side is formed by 
the lofty walls of the Church. On the west, the Cloisters, sur- 
mounted by the Dormitory, stretch in one unbroken line. The 
Buttery, Refectory, and Kitchen flank the southern range ; and on 
the east, the portals of the Chapter-house join the south Transept, 
which still, by its massy strength, retains its original elevation. 



THE CHAPTER-HOUSE. 

The Chapter-house, divided by the Sacristy from the north 
Transept, is of a date between it and the Early English Choir, but 
bears no local assimilation of style to any contemporary building of 
the Abbey. It is, indeed, I apprehend, judging from certain pecu- 
liarities of style and the magnificence of its dimensions, the work 
of Richard, the fourth Abbot, who had been previously Prior of 
Clarevall, in France, and may have brought or procured the design 
from that great head of the Cistercian houses. In size, it is little 
inferior to any rectangular Chapter-house in the kingdom, being 
84 feet 7 inches long, by 41 feet wide ; though a vestibule of 
inferior height, formed by the intervention of a wooden screen, has 
occupied 24 feet of the western extremity. The ten round marble 
columns that divided the area into three aisles, have been ruined to 
their bases ; but the triple tier of benches, used by the Convent in 
their deliberations, still remain. 

From the decease of Abbot Richard, in 1170, to that of Copgrove, 
in 1345, the Chapter-house was the invariable burial-place of the 
Abbots, except of Pherd and Eston, who died elsewhere ; and 
during that period nineteen of them were interred here. These 
facts, partially communicated by Dr. Burton, in his " Monasticon," 
from a chartulary of the Abbey, led, in 1790, to the excavation of 
the apartment, when the following evidence of their particular 
graves was obtained. 

Within the last bay eastward, are four coffins, laid side by side, 
that most probably have contained the remains of Abbot Richard 
Fastolph and his three immediate successors. Two of them have 
lost their proper slabs, the cover of another is uninscribed, and that 
of the last indicates only, in the sacred emblem >J< incised on its 
head, that it covers one who preferred the expression of his dying 
faith to the remembrance or gratitude of posterity. 



80 STUDLET. 

At their feet, and immediately below the seat where he so long 
and worthily presided, is this memorial of the great Abbot, John de 
Cancia, who died November 25th, 1247, inscribed, in Longobardic 
characters, on a ridged slab of gi'ey marble : — 

HI. REQIESCIT : DOMPNVS . JOh's . X : AbflAS. DE FONTlbv.' 
QVJ • OBIJT • VII KL • DECEMBRIS. 

Close by the south side is a slab of similar character, but some- 
what humbler dimension, on which the following inscription is said 
to have appeared on its discovery, though, in consequence of the 
heedless steps of visitors, such parts of it only as are inclosed by 
brackets can now be deciphered : — 

[^ hi]. reqi[escit dompnvs] joh's x[ii abbas de 
fontib' qi : obijt] 

This reading was, however, certainly erroneous ; since, according 
to the enumeration used on the adjacent stone, supported by the 
records of the Abbey, William Allerton was the twelfth Abbot — 
and imperfect also, by the supplementary words, " qui obiit," still 
visible. It commemorates, perhaps, John de Ebor., the eighth 
Abbot, who died June 14th, 1211. 

A plain ridged gravestone on the south of the last, covers, I 
apprehend, the said Abbot Allerton, who died December 11th, 1258. 

On a detached fragment, which has formed part of the tomb of 
the thirteenth Abbot, who died April 30th, 1259, are the words, 

ADAM . XIIX . abbas. 

Near the middle of the room is a flat stone, from which, though 
now much shattered, has been rescued the following fragment — 



a portion, perhaps, of the memorial of Reginald, the fifteenth Abbot, 
who died October 27th, 1274. 

Beside this, is a small marble slab, which, though much broken, 
retains the matrix of a figure that has held a crosier, and of a cir- 
cumscription with corner pieces. 

On the opposite side of the aisle is a stone that has had a similar 
design ; but so worn that the head of the crosier can only be dis- 
tinctly traced. Here is also a fragment of another memorial, of the 
same date, and part of a plain-ridged stone of the thirteenth 
century. 



FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 



81 



The slab near the entrance may be placed over Abbot Otley, who 
died 24th Dec, 1290 ; though he is said, more particularly, to have 
been buried " in hostio Ca° de Fontibus." 




Above the Chapter-house, was the Library and Scriptorium, 
with other apartments, the extent of which is indicated on the 
outside of the south transept, which they joined, and from which 
they were approached. 

The notes of Leland, who saw the Library just before the 



82 



STUDLET. 



Dissolution, do not suggest the idea that it was of that importance 
that was demanded, at least, by the wealth and high position of 
the house.* Several of its members in the first century after its 
foundation were learned men, and authors of considerable reputa- 
tion ; t but in after days, though several of the abbots were 
possessed of high intellectual attainments, the general literary 
character of the house was insufficiently maintained. The follow- 
ing sketches, selected at random from a book written in this 




Scriptorium, may show, however, that it was occasionally tenanted 
by men not wholly deficient of sarcastic and graphic power of 

* Collectanea, vol. ill, pp. 44, 45. 
t See Leland de Script., vol. i, pp. 232, 235, 245. Pitseus de Bebus Angl. vol. i., 
pp. 21&-217. Bale, Script. Illust. c. ii. p. 198. 



rOUNTATNS ABBEY. 83 

expression. The middle figure is that of a knight who had a 
law-suit with the Convent. 

South of the Chapter-house is a groined-passage, of the same 
date, leading to the Base Court, and the alley or cloister communi- 
cating with the Abbot's House. 

Next and last, in the Eastern range of the Cloister, and entered 
by a doorway which still bears traces of painted enrichments of 
the Early English mouldings, is the Frater-house, a fine vaulted 
apartment of transition Norman work, 104 ft. long, and 29 ft. 
wide. The rude, headless figure of a monk, that stands near the 
north wall, was found, several years ago, during a partial excavation 
of this apartment, together with the smaller figure near it. From 
the upper end, which extends to the river, but is at present sepa- 
rated by a modern wall, is a communication on the east side with 
the Cellar, of the ample dimensions of 59 ft. by 18 ft., beyond 
which was the Brew-house, 30 ft. by 18 ft. Before the walls 
of these buildings were pulled down to the present level, about 
eighty years ago. Dr. Burton's plan indicates what, apparently, 
was the site of the great boiler in the massy partition wall ; 
and on its recent excavation, the ruined surface bore marks of 
subjection to intense heat. For the advantages of drainage and 
refrigeration, one side of these places was built on arches above 
the river, which, ultimately, seems to have endangered the stability 
of the eastern end.* 

From the Frater-house we ascend, by a modern contrivance, for 
the proper staircase from the Cloister Court is still filled with 
rubbish, to the Court House, or, as it is called in the records of the 
Abbey, " The Hall of Pleas," — an interesting apartment 42|- by 
22^ ft., groined to a central pillar without base or capital. The 
Court of the Liberty of Fountains — a large and privileged district, 
was held here until a period within recollection, when, in compli- 
ance with modern habits and associations, it was transferred to 
Fountains Hall. The compartment at the upper end, where the 
seneschal and his officers sat, is shown by the grooves of the cancelli 
or bars by which they were surrounded, in the central pillar. 

* Under the arch, at the eastern extremity of this water-course, was found during 
the recent excavation, a hoard of silver money, consisting of 354 pieces, generally in 
excellent preservation, ranging in date from the reign of Philip and Mary to that of 
Charles the First; a few clipped pieces being Spanish coin. They wei-e laid, at the 
depth only of a foot, on a piece of slate, and were doubtless committed to this par- 
ticular place by an inhabitant of the adjacent countiy who had been slain suddenly 
during the Great Rebellion ; for it was easy to be identified by any who shared the 
secret. 

__ ___- ^ 



84 STUDLET. 

The apartment over the Court-house, now nearly ruined, may 
have been the place where the records and muniments of the Abbey 
were deposited, if the room above the Gate-house was not appro- 
priated to that purpose. 

On descending to the Cloister Court, we enter the Kitchen, a 
valuable example of the domestic architecture of the twelfth 
century ; vaulted like the Court House above, to a single slender 
pillar. A more interesting instance, however, of the skill and 
confidence of the architect, may be observed in the heads of the two 
fire-places — each not less than 16f ft. long and 6§ ft. deep — the heads 
of which are straight and formed of huge stones, dovetailed 
together on the principle of an arch. Hence, too, another requi- 
site must have been contributed ; for the kitchen is entirely destitute 
of windows on three sides, and the triangular apertures to the 
south seem intended rather for the admission of air than light. The 
two openings in the west wall have been, no doubt, the hatchways 
by which provisions were served to the Refectory, but enlarged in 
modern times, to obtain a prospect. 

The Refectory, which forms the central apartment on the south 
side of the Cloister Court, is a very beautiful structure, of the Early 
English period, of the magnificent dimensions of 109 by 46| feet. 
As it was, therefore, incapable of being covered by one ridged 
roof, it was divided by a row of four marble columns, of which, 
however, all remnants but the foundations have been destroyed, 
within the last century. From the recess of the west side, a portion 
of scripture was read during the repast. The parapet of the stair- 
case has been broken down and unskilfully repaired, but the bracket 
of the pulpit remains, in the form of an expanded flower. 

A door at the south-west corner of the Cloister Court leads to 
The Buttery, a curiously contrived room, which has, also, an 
outlet towards the river, and an opening to the Refectory, which 
was the Hatchway. On making an excavation here, a few years 
ago, a quantity of ashes was found on the floor, the flags of which 
bore the marks of a protracted fire. 

The west cloister having been, no doubt, already examined, we 
now pass to the Base Court, on the south side of the Chapter-house. 

The whole area of this Court, as well as that of the buildings 
which enclose it, on the south and east sides, have been discovered 
only in a recent excavation from the kitchen to the Chapter-house ; 
which, by restoring the old level, has both added considerably to the 
gromid-plan, and increased the picturesque appearance of the Abbey. 



FOUNTAINS ABBET. 



85 



On the west side, it will be observed to have had a pent-house 
attached to the Frater-house ; on the south, the cellar and brew- 




house, before mentioned ; and, on the east, three apartments which 
will attract attention only from the fact, that they were the prisons 
of the Abbey. These favourite localities of the novelist were used 
for the punishment of such monks as had been found guilty of felony 



80 STUDLET. 

or other heinous crimes ; but, in this instance, the larger cell, on the 
south, may have been required by the secular authority which the 
convent enjoyed within " The Liberty of Fountains." In each, 
however, it is evident, solitary confinement and the most strict isola- 
tion was inflicted, from the consequent presence of a convenience, 
which added only to the oifensive character of the place. The 
apartments on the east side of them, as well as those in the upper 
stoiy, may have been used only for subordinate purposes, since the 
former were approached through the Abbot's coal-yard ; indeed, an 
ash-heap was found in front of the round-headed door-way, at the 
time of its discovery. The stair-case at the north-west corner may 
have served some apartments of the Abbot's house over the passage. 

The whole of the apartments of the Abbey have now been visited, 
and an idea probably formed of the nature, wants, and arrangement 
of the most definite and perfect exponent of the monastic system 
remaining in the kingdom. The recent excavation has, however, 
disclosed, in the ruin of the Abbot's house, now before us, an equally 
interesting example of our early domestic architecture, which fur- 
nishes, also, additional evidence of the dignity, hospitality, and gene- 
ral social condition of the rulers of these influential establishments. 

Previously to the month of November, 1848, the site of this house 
remained in the condition in which it was left when Sir Stephen 
Proctor pulled it down for materials for Fountains Hall — a shape- 
less mass of rubbish, overgrown with weeds and brushwood, which 
rendered it inaccessible, and entirely concealed any trace of founda- 
tions that might have been sought. From a practice, however, 
which prevailed in the Cistercian houses, supported, locally, by infer- 
ences derived from the records of the Abbey, I have been induced, 
for some years past, to point out this as the site of the Abbot's house, 
in opposition to the received idea that the Hospitium, on the west 
side of the great cloister, had been appropriated to the purpose ; but 
beyond this suggestion, nothing, until the period in question, was 
ascertained. At that time, the arched space above the river requir- 
ing repair, and, consequently, a removal of the soil, a pavement 
was discovered, which indicated the important character of the 
ruined building ; and ultimately led — by the noble owner's direc- 
tion — to the extensive and interesting excavation which has ensued. 

Before proceeding to a survey of the ruin, it should be observed 
by how great sacrifice of labour the site of the house has been 
obtained in this particular and favourite locality ; for, as the valley 
is extremely contracted, and the Skell incapable of permanent diver- 



rOIJlS'TAIIsS ABBEY. 87 

sion, the only expedient of the monks was to build above the river ; 
and four parallel tunnels, each nearly 300 feet long, still attest their 
perseverance and skill. 

As far as remains enable us to judge, the building of the house 
was undertaken by Abbot John de Cancia, after he had completed 
the Choir and Lady Chapel of the conventual church. The wealth 
and reputation of the monastery was, in his time, nearly at its 
height ; and the sweeping donations it had received from the Percys, 
and Mowbrays, and Romillies, and their sub-infeudatories, had ena- 
bled them to realise their architectural designs on the grandest scale. 
Until this time, the residence of the Abbot was probably of the 
humble, but not unusual, materials of wood and plaster ; as, indeed, 
the lodgings of the Prior of Bolton seem to have been at the time of 
the Dissolution. 

The character of the structure, like that of the Abbey, has been 
plain and substantial, depending more on the grand proportion and 
combination of the main outlines than the elaborate decoration of 
particular features and parts. The arrangement must, however, 
either have been very commodious, or the domestic economy invari- 
able ; for it seems to have remained unaltered until that era of social 
change which heralded the sixteenth century, when one of those 
great architectural reformers — Darnton or Huby — built a separate 
Refectory, and formed several apartments, by dividing the Great 
Hall, which decreased simplicity of manners had rendered of unne- 
cessary dimensions. 

The chief or state approach to the house was by a spacious Alley, 
from the east side of the Cloister Court, richly, but not continuously, 
decorated by a trefoil-headed arcade, supported by a double row of 
shafts, and so deeply recessed, as, subsequently, to have required 
the insertion of solid masonry behind the foremost shaft. The Hall, 
to which this passage led, has been, unquestionably, one of the most 
spacious and magnificent apartments ever erected in the kingdom, 
and admirably adapted for the entertainment of those distinguished 
persons and their hosts of gentilitial retainers by whom the Abbot 
was continually visited. Its internal length is not less than 171 feet, 
and its width 70 feet ; the bases, or foundations, of eighteen cylin- 
drical columns, shafted and banded with marble, — indicating its 
division into a nave and two aisles, the latter having circulated 
round the extremities of the former. The number and position of 
its windows cannot be ascertained ; but the jambs and bases dug up 
within the area, show that they were plain lancet lights similar to 



88 STUDLET. 

those of the Lady Chapel. Of the existence of clerestory windows, 
there is no trace. 

The chief entrance to the Hall has been torn down to the ground ; 
but from the bases of the shafts by which it was flanked, it appears 
to have been of similar design to those of the Lady Chapel. 

On each side of the Hall, which stands directly across the river, 
occupying the whole width of the house from north to south, the 
other apartments have been grouped. Immediately opposite the 
entrance, is the principal staircase. On the left, in the north wall, 
one of the great fire-places, now ruined to the hearth. To the right 
of the staircase, has been a room not yet fully cleared out. The 
next apartment, southward, was the Chapel, where the foundations 
of two buttresses on the south side suggest the idea of three win- 
dows ; and a base still attached to the north-east angle, the only 
other feature left, that three lancet lights occupied the eastern 
extremity. The stone altar is still tolerably perfect, but has lost its 
slab. On its north side has been a narrow staircase, leading either 
to the Vestry, or the apartments of the Chaplain ; and, beyond, the 
long but narrow base of a work, erected in the Perpendicular period, 
of which the use is uncertain. 

On the north side of the Chapel, is a picturesque apartment, 
partially vaulted, which, being below the general level of the other 
rooms, and, from the declivity of the ground, always accessible, has 
often been delineated as " a crypt," but stoutly asserted by the 
country people to have been " the place where the Abbot's six white 
chariot horses were kept ! " " Sex eqtd ad higain" the Abbot cer- 
tainly had in his stable at the time of the Dissolution ; but, from 
the position and character of the place, it appears to have been the 
Cellar and Store-house of the establishment. 

To the south of the Chapel, but detached from it by the interven- 
tion of the scullery-yard, has been the Kitchen, — an apartment cor- 
roborating, in its dimension and appliances, the most romantic 
ideas of monastic hospitality. At the south side, are the foundations 
of two great fire-places and a boiler, in a wall which has divided a 
narrow " back-kitchen " from the chief apartment ; and, in the 
north-east angle, a stone grate in the floor, which was covered by 
wooden doors, and communicates with the river below. This very 
singular object, of which I do not remember another example, has, 
most probably, been used as a ventilator, to mitigate a temperature 
which must always have been sufficiently oppressive, but which, on 
festive occasions, would not only be increased by a subsidiary fire 



FOUNTAIN'S ABBEY. 89 

and boiler, but also by two huge ovens, the one at the west, and the 
other, and larger, at the east end of the apartment. 

These buildings, with some indefinite appurtenances of the kitchen, 
have flanked the east side of the Great Hall. The arrangement on 
the west side has been nearly obliterated by the lapse of the arches 
above the river. There may be traced, however, towards the north, 
the foundation of a room, which, from the amplitude of its dimen- 
sions, and the elevation of a dais at the west end, may be considered 
to have been the Refectory, erected, it seems, either by Darnton or 
Huby, and probably the apartment which, in a homage done to the 
latter Abbot, in 1501, is styled " Nova camera versus ecclesiam." 

On the north side of this room was another, where stood a reservoir 
of water fed by a lead-pipe, still partly visible, from a spring above 
the kitchen bank. To the west of it was the coal-yard, in which 
the last supply that the Abbot needed, remained undisturbed until 
the recent excavation. There was found here, also, a large heap of 
ashes and cinders, just as they had been cast from the window above, 
— the sill being worn down by the frequent attrition of the shovel. 

The removal of the mass disclosed what every housekeeper's 
experience would have suggested. First, of course, there was a 
silver spoon, weighing about an ounce, with capacious bowl, slender 
octagonal stem, and a head like a plain inverted Tudor bracket ; 
then, broken pottery of different kinds and sizes, — from the painted 
ware that had disappeared from the Abbot's table, to the large coarse 
jugs that, after many " a mere crack," had, at last, been broken in 
the kitchen ; a small silver ornament, resembling a lion's head, and, 
apparently, detached from an article of table plate ; a silver ring ; 
a brass ring ; several Nuremburg tokens ; part of a leaden ornament, 
designed like Tudor window tracery ; with a number of venison and 
beef bones, and bushels of oyster-shells, mussel-shells, and cockle- 
shells, as fresh and pearly as when they left Abbot Bradley's table. 
Yet, trifling and worthless, in every respect, as most of these objects 
might be, they seemed, as they came from the hiding-place where 
forgotten hands had cast them, to connect the spectator with those 
whom three centuries have divided from personal sympathy and 
association, more intimately than the disclosure of that ruined scene 
in which they had so long been consigned to oblivion. 

The Encaustic Tiles, found in excavating the several apartments, 
are numerous and singular, and the evidence obtained on the subject 
of mediaeval brickwork, important and interesting. The floors of the 
principal apartments have been pa .ed either with encaustic or plain 



90 STUDLEY. 

tiles ; but the greater part of them had been torn up and removed 
before the house was pulled down, when the specimens that remaiii 
were so much disturbed that it is difficult to determine to what par- 
ticular apartment they belonged. The presence of a few geometrical 
tiles, similar to those with which John de Cancia decorated the 
church, seem to indicate that he bestowed also a pavement on the 
hall, and other chief apartments of the house ; but none were found 
fixed, unless the small square tiles west of the refectory, may be 
referred to that early period. The rest of the tiles, that have been 
found in different parts, among the rubbish, are generally of the 
Tudor period ; of which character, also, is a tolerably perfect pave- 
ment, upwards of 30 feet square, at the south end of the Great Hall. 
Although no general device has been attempted in its arrangement, 
beyond a few plain borders or bounding courses, respective of the 
bases of pillars, yet several patterns are introduced, without refer- 
ence to equi-distance or principle, which are very interesting. 

One pattern, of four tiles, displays the arms of the Abbey {azure), 
three horse-shoes (or), and the very appropriate circumscription, 
used by Darnton in the Lady Chapel, 33eiirtiirite fontes iomino* 
Another, and nearly similar pattern, of four tiles, exhibits the same 
arms, but circumscribed by soli JBeo f)onor t\ gloria, — a motto 
always used by Huby, and identified, more particularly, with him in 
two fragmentary tiles, where the shield has displayed his initials, 
with the mitre and crozier. There is also a pattern, bearing, — 
perhaps heraldically,— three feathers, without a legend, similar to 
a much better impression, stolen, soon after its discovery, by some 
prowling " collector" from the centre of the dais in the Refectory. 
From the inferior manufacture, however, of the tiles used in the 
Hall, I am inclined to suppose that they were such only as were 
rejected, or remained unused, after some work which may, hereafter, 
be discovered in the Abbey itself. 

The Abbot's garden and orchard were at the east end of the church, 
enclosed by a high wall, pulled down, with another which crossed 
the valley a little further eastward, soon after Mr. Aislabie purchased 
the place. But, beyond these limits, a range of buildings extended 
even to the site of the present east lodge*— about 500 yards— the 
foundations still remaining under the terraced walk. In a particular 

» It may be useful to obsei-ve, that a foot-path, hy the river side, leads from 
Fountains Bridge to Aldfield Spa ; a most valuable sulphuretted spring, in one of the 
most picturesque passes of Skeldale. It was discovered accidentally, about the year 
1698, but has hitherto been unproductive of its capability, chiefly from the want of 
accommodation for visitors. I am not able to state minutely its component parts, but 



<5i 



^ l! 



iSs^.^'... 





1 ,,Via,4&^-s '^ v^ 



W'^ 



t"'n 



n 




1 









If :ilfcTa hi'itje . L-ith Jrrk. 



COFFin SIABS, DISCOVIEET) L¥ THE CEMETERY, EOraTAINS ABBEY, 
m MARCH AND APRIu, 18 b3 



rOUNTAINS ABBEY. 



91 



position under the rocks — easy to be found by the beaten path- 
way — an echo can be heard, remarkable for its powerful reflection 
from the Abbey ; though often more amusing to a bystander by its 
discovery of the mental capacity and social position of those who, 
by some characteristic war-cry, endeavour to provoke its powers. 

On leaving the Abbey Close, we enter a portion of the Studley 
grounds, not already visited ; and, after the enjoyment of much 
sylvan beauty, enhanced in a remarkable degree by our elevation 
above the contracted and deeply-wooded dell, emerge on a delicious 
lawn, before a beautiful casino or Banqueting-house. In the chief 
apartment, adorned with a superb ceiling and other elaborate decora- 
tions of the last century, is a bronze statue of the Venus de Medicis, 
and, over the mantel-piece, a painting of the Governor of Surat going 
a hawking. 

As we recede from this seductive spot, we continue to recognise 
many pleasing objects, which, being old acquaintance, need no 
introduction, though invested with new interest by the reversal of 
our former position and approach ; until, descending the well-walk, 
we speedily arrive at the lodge, and so bid adieu to scenes that, for 
many a year, may make 

Tliy mind a mansion for all lovely forms, 

Thy memory a (libelling place 

For all sweet sounds and harmonies. 




the following analysis, prepared by Mr. Bninton, a skilful chemist of Eipon, about 
50 years ago, will at least give an idea of its importance. A gallon exhibited : 

Gaseous Contents. C. In. 

Carbonic Acid .... 6. 

Azote 4. 

Sulphuretted Hydrogen . . 21. 



Solid Contents. 


Grs 


Carbonate of Lime . 


. 12.5 


Carbonate of Magnesia 


3.5 


Sulphate of Magnesia 


5. 


Muriate of Soda 


. 208. 


Muriate of Magnesia 


. 96. 



Total . . 31. 

Very pure azotic gas, in a free state, emitted at intervals, was collected at the rate of 
a gallon in 56 minutes, though several bubbles escaped. 




MAEKENFIELD HALL. 




/NS^i 



HE antiquary who is gifted with tolerable pedes- 
trian powers, and has " the bump of locality " 
well developed, will find the profit he has 
received at Fountains, enhanced by a visit to 
jVIarkenfield Hall. It may be seen from the 
east side of How Hill, rising among the saplings 
of its ancient park, about two miles from the 
Abbey ; but the road will not be easily found, without more particular 
direction. 

From time immemorial, Markenfield was the residence of a 
powerful and well-allied family of that name, until the prominent 
part which was taken by Thomas Markenfield in the Rising in the 
North in 1569, occasioned his attainder, and, consequently, the 
forfeiture of his estates to the Crown. 

In its general aspect, it remains much as he left it, a most 
valuable and picturesque example of that style of domestic archi- 
tecture — "hesitating between hospitable confidence and armed 
precaution " — which illustrates a deeply interesting era of our 
social progress ; having been built by John de Markenfield, Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, who obtained license to castellate it 
in 1309. 

In the fifteenth century, some alterations were made, chiefly in 
the doorways and lights on the east side of the quadrangle, and, 
in the great change of society which ensued in the Elizabethan 



MARKENFIELD HALL. 93 

period, a general subdivision of the several apartments became 
necessary. Since that time, however, — though for awhile it was 
inhabited by the Egertons — it has been occupied as a farm-house, 
and so lost more and more of a character, exceedingly worthy of 
restoration. 

Though the original ground-plan is probably undisturbed, the 
entire shell of the present structure is not, wholly, of the founder's 
work. Indeed, the Gate-house is only of the Elizabethan period, 
and the range of stables, on the west side of the court, though highly 
curious, have been partially renewed. 

The principal apaitments were in the north-east angle, elevated, 
as usual, above the basement story, in which were the kitchen, 
cellars, and other offices, still evident and partly vaulted. The 
north wing is entirely occupied by the Hall, a noble apartment 
about 40 ft. long, and the whole width of the building. On its 
east, is the equally spacious Chapel, which has a fine altar window, 
with geometrical tracery ; and a richly decorated piscina, with the 
arms of the family. To the south of the Chapel is the Solar, 
communicating with a suite of apartments worthy of close examina- 
tion ; and on the north, several apartments, occupied, perhaps, by 
the Chaplain, one of which has been partially paved with tiles of 
the rose and fret pattern, obtained, no doubt, from the kiln at 
Fountains, where they are found in abundance. 

Within the recollection of aged persons, several large buildings 
and offices are remembered to have stood outside the moat ; but all 
trace of them, and of a ponderous drawbridge before the gate-house, 
have long since disappeared. 

No furniture, pictures, nor any memorial of the family remains 
in the house, except a piece of oak bearing their arms, carved in the 
sixteenth century : Quarterly, 1st and 4th (Argent) on a bend (sable), 
three bezants ; 2nd, a fess between six escallops ; 3rd, three tilting 
helmets, for Miniot. Supporters, two stags regardant. Crest, a hind's 
head affrontee. 

Shortly after Markenfield's forfeiture, this estate was granted to 
the Lord Chancellor Egerton, by whose descendant, the celebrated 
Duke of Bridgwater, it was sold to Sir Fletcher Norton, ancestor to 
Lord Grantley, the present owner. 




BRIMHAM EOCKS. 




" Nature here, 
"Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will 

her virgin fancies, 
Wild above rule or art." 

Paradise Lost. 

HIS interesting, and, probably, unique place of 
resort is generally visited, either by following the 
road that leads from Ripon to Studley ; or, by 
a direct drive from Harrogate — a road, formerly, 
all but impassable. 
The mighty hand of nature has, seldom, left a more magnificent 
impression, than on this stupendous scene. Afar off, the precipitous 
site seems crowned by the inextricable wreck of a long desolated 
city. On a nearer view, the grim and uncouth forms defy all 
discrimination and definition ; and, when standing, at length, among 
them, our uncontrollable impression continues to be of perplexity 
and astonishment. 

An attentive examination, however, soon satisfies us as to their 
origin, and leaves us in the enjoyment of the rude similitudes they 
present, and contemplation of the volcanic power that has rent 
their vast blocks asunder, and projected them, in all forms, to 



BEIMHAM EOCKS. 95 

vast distances. Impending high on the ridge of Nidderdale, the 
storms and floods of unnumbered ages have washed away the soil 
that had been accumulated around their forms, and exposed their 
bare bleak sides, in piles, the Titans might credibly have heaped 
up. The friable nature of their composition, wasted by the corro- 
ding blasts sweeping both from the Atlantic and Northern Seas, 
across miles of unsheltered moors, has aided the distorted formation, 
and created grotesque and singular shapes, analogous to those 
presumed to have been used by Druidical superstition. When the 
learning and imagination of Borlase had awakened the minds of 
scholars to the existence of extensive monuments of this ancient 
priesthood in England, it was natural, therefore, that such a 
mysterious assemblage of erratic forms should not remain unappro- 
priated, or unpeopled with visions of the past. Major Rooke 
dissertated at length on them, before the Society of Antiquaries, 
in 1786. Minor tourists, of course, caught the infection ; and, 
since then, they have generally been considered, and almost daily 
described, as the great veritable abode of Druidism in the northern 
parts. 

That the Druids may not have availed themselves of facilities 
thus appropriately furnished, imperfect investigation does not suffer 
me to deny. From the Rocking Stones, which are considered the 
best evidence, I think nothing has been satisfactorily inferred ; and, 
of the fabrication of the rugose tubes, penetrating rocks sometimes 
of 30 feet in length, and deemed to be passages for the impressive 
conveyance of mysterious sounds and M'ords — correlative proof, 
difficult to be obtained, can only certainly decide. One stone, 
however, presents an appearance for which many think it has 
been indebted a little to the hand of man. It stands on the 
brink of the northern precipice, and consists of an irregular columnar 
mass, 19ft. high, and 47 in circumference, resting on a truncated 
cone, whose apex is but one foot, and base 2ft. 7in. in diameter. A 
glance at the very friable consistency of the general stratification 
of the groups at this level, may probably solve the mystery. 

In the midst of the rocks, the late Lord Grantley erected a 
house, with suitable out-offices, for the accommodation of those who 
were attracted to a place which, as Burns said of his farm at 
Ellisland, seems to be " the riddlings of creation." 



96 HACKFALL. 



HACKFALL. 




THOSE who are gladdened by the works of 
Nature, and a ramble in an umbrageous retreat, 
there cannot be afforded a richer treat than a trip 
to Hackfall. It is a sufficient recommendation 
to know that its beauty was commemorated by 
Gilpin ; and that Pennant, who had seen much, 
and, generally, saw that much well, styled it " one of the most 
picturesque scenes in the north of England." 

This peculiar character is occasioned by the expanding embouchure 
of a precipitous glen, that guides a leaping stream, opposite a grand 
sweep of the river Ure, where it ploughs its way at the bottom of 
a deep and densely wooded ravine. Naked and rifted scars create, 
apart from their intrinsic majesty, a charming contrast by their 
protrusion from the long sylvan steeps ; while simple erections, 
artfully contrived and judiciously distributed, blend, as far as fiction 
may, the associations that gather around the ruined arch and broken 
tower. 

The entrance to the woods is by a simple wicket, found imme- 
diately after leaving the village of Gruelthorpe, on the road side to 
Masham. The little rivulet, gurgling over its stony bed, accom- 
panies our declining path, until joined by the Alum-spring, 
gliding noiselessly through the woods on the brae side, though 
blemished by the artificial character of its mossy channel. The 
path is continued to the river, but we cross the burn, and, for- 
getting the steep ascent of the glen, in the diversity of prospect 
which every footstep acquires, surmount the wooded vale at 
" Mowbray Castle ; " where the view extends uninterruptedly 
from our feet, to the long range of accliving land that shelters the 
town of Richmond, 

We sink by slow gradations to the high bank of the river, passing 
reluctantly, each recurring prospect of its waters, and peering down 
gullies that headlong torrents have ploughed in the steep brae side. 



HACKrALL. 97 

Having thus attained the extreme southern point, screened only 
by slender boughs from the perilous stream, we may enjoy the 
seclusion of the dell, by winding down the long terraces that have 
been laboriously hewn athwart the impending scar. High, over- 
arching, boughs have entwined their grisly roots among the bare 
bleak stones, and often may be observed, obtruding themselves, at 
considerable distances, from the parent stem. 

After a short stroll by the river, interrupted offensively by the 
scroggy plantation that has superseded the ancient woods on the 
further bank, we cross the burn that accompanied our early walk, 
and embrace the opportunity of rest, and restorative appliances, at 
Fisher's Hall. From this little grot, formed chiefly of petrifactions 
collected in the grounds, the river rolling on under the sombre hill, 
attracts, from its proximity, at least, undivided attention, until a 
glance, perhaps casually and at departure, discloses, in the contrary 
direction, two rills stealing down the mossy rocks, embosomed in 
verdant shade. " Mowbray Point" and " Castle," crown, at a con- 
siderable elevation, the sylvan canopy, but much of their beauty is 
lost in the assimilation of the objects. 

Having crossed the dell of the " Town-beck," and turned away 
from the river, we halt in the solitude of the woods, to view, from 
a rustic bower, a rill, skipping amid tall graceful stems, and, in 
another direction, down a lofty avenue, the ruin on Mowbray Point, 
relieved only by the clouds. 

As we seek the brow of the impending hill, various distant 
prospects of the country beyond Masham object themselves, even 
to a careless eye ; until, having gained the jutting brow, you obtain 
a foretaste of the coming prospect of the far-famed vale of York. 
Yet, another glimpse, and a few hurried paces more, and the long 
expected gratification bursts on you, in all its grandeur, at 
" Mowbray Point." 

From the abyss at your feet, where black waters sleep in 
cavernous gloom, the eye rises, joyously, to the bold massy 
foreground of deep woods and sweeping torrents, to meads and 
cornfields, and forests, and an interminable succession of flood and 
fell — bewildered amid the myriad shapes and shades inextricably 
woven into their web ; nor dreams of the immensity of that 
gorgeous expanse until the faint blue lines mingle with the 
Hambleton hills, and it finds the amplitude that converges to its 
vision comprehends the sixty miles that intervene between the 
towers of York and the estuary of the Tees. 



98 HACKFALL. 

To detail, then, to strangers, the numberless objects that may 
be observed, would be both unnecessary and unavailing. Yet, it 
may detain many a lingerer to know that, where the twin towers of 
Tanfield rise by the gleaming stream, the last home of the great 
Marmions is canopied by the one ; and that the chivalry of the 
north have approached the halls of Fitzhugh through the other. 
That in the gabled pile to the right, " Old Norton " mused on the 
treason that has immortalised his name ; and that at Topcliffe, — 
receding further from the view, the regal hearted Percys enjoyed a 
retirement from the world, until the avenging hand of Elizabeth 
entailed misery and ruin on the representative of their race. That, 
still beyond, towers Craike, the embattled patrimony of the sainted 
Cuthbert ; and, turning quickly aside, that Northallerton, forgetful 
of the stately palace of the bishops of Durham, and looking upon 
the plain of the Battle of the Standard, nestles at the left of the 
mountain ridge ; and that, glancing over the Priory of Mountgrace, 
and Harlsey the stronghold of the Strangwayes, and Whorlton of 
the Meinells and the Darcies, and Stokesley of the Baliols and the 
Eures, Rosebury rears its volcanic peak among the clouds ; while, 
still beyond, the high lands of Eston die into a line of gleaming 
light, that may, reasonably, be deemed to be the ocean. 

Few having looked on so much beauty, would now desire further 
entertainment. The path favours our return, and by a circuitous 
route, that agreeably mitigates our transition, we presently regain 
the lanes and fields. 



HABEOaATB. 



99 



HAEEOQATE. 




Hjec resoluta senum confirraat membra trementum, 
Et refovet nervos lotrix haeo lympha gelatos, 
Hue infimia regunt baculis vestigia claudi, 
Ingrati referunt baculis vestigia spretis. 

HOBBES, DB MlEABILIBDS PeCCI. 

ARROGATE, like most watering places of renown, 
had but an humble and obscure origin. In the 
earliest periods to which our written history extends, 
it lay an undistinguished and probably untenanted 
spot in the forest of Knaresbrough ; and it was not 
until the eraparkment of a portion of that great 
sylvan range at Haywra, that,— from the road which led thither 
from the fortress on the Nidd, — it became known as Haywragate. 

As the time of the emparkment of Haywra is uncertain, so must 
be the designation of the road that led thither. In a charter granted 
by Richard Earl of Cornwall, about 1257, to the house of St. Robert 
at Knaresbrough, there is mention of the road which turns from that 
town towards " Heywra," and the application of sainted appella- 
tions to some of the springs at Harrogate, indicates that they, if not 
their unusual efficacy, were observed during the mediaeval period. 
Yet the huts that were scattered by the way-side might not, even 
in this century, have lost much of their humble character, if the 
occurrence of an accidental circumstance had not suddenly changed 
their fortune. 

It was this : Captain William Slingsby, a younger brother of the 
family that for several centuries has resided at Scriven, about three 
miles from this place, visited, during the latter half of the sixteenth 
century, the waters of Sauveniere, in Germany, and received benefit. 
On his return, he observed, as too many have done, that he had left 
a remedy of equal efficacy at home, — was wise enough to avail 
himself of the benefit, — gratefully built a protection over the spring. 



LofC. 



H 2 



100 HABEOGATE. 

— and spread the glad tidings of its utility among the marvelling 
population around. 

While a series of cures were in performance, some of which, says 
Dr. Short, " are perhaps the greatest and most remarkable filed up 
in the authentic records of physic, down from Hippocrates to this 
day," Dr. Stanhope, an ingenious physician, of York, discovered in 
1631, at High Harrogate, another Chalybeate spring, to which, in 
distinction to the Sulphur Waters, he gave the name of the 
" Sweet Spa." In the year after, when he wrote his dissertation 
of the Mineral Waters near Knaresbrough — for, by that general 
designation, be it remembered, these springs at Harrogate were 
then, and long after, comprehended — the Sulphur waters were 
rising in reputation, though they were chiefly frequented by the 
common people ; and our author confessed " what are its inward 
uses we know not yet." It was fortunate, however, that in this 
absence of information, the merits of the sulphuretted springs 
forced themselves on attention ; for a controversy soon after 
arose, touching the relative merits of the Scarborough and Harrogate 
Chalybeate Waters ; and, with the fate that has attended many 
once fashionable watering places, our Spa might have become 
unfrequented and unregarded, had not the Sulphur Water maintained 
its popularity. 

With the social progress of the eighteenth century, Harrogate 
rose and prospered. Its accommodations increased with the 
domestic economy and civilisation of the times, and the number of 
visitants with that accumulation of wealth, which commercial skill 
and enterprise had dealt to the hands of so many — until, at the 
present day, by the centralisation of many species of medicinal 
waters — the superiority of the most important class — the beauty 
of the surrounding country — and the diversity of amusements, 
Harrogate has become, and by its many undeveloped attractions 
and the permanent character of its excellencies, bids fair to remain, 
one of the most interesting, eligible, and beneficial watering places 
in the Empire. 

High and Low Harrogate form, as far as parochial matters and 
other greater local interests are concerned, two distinct villages, 
whose line of division, two brooks, is not obvious to the eye. The 
former is in the parish of Knaresbrough, the other in that of 
Pannal ; but, until the formation of the Bishopric of Ripon, a more 
singular distinction prevailed ; for the former was in the jurisdiction 
of the See of Chester — the latter that of York. 



HARROGATE. 101 

The Parishioners of High Harrogate attended divine service, by 
an inconvenient journey of three miles, until the year 1749, when, 
by the subscription of the interested parties, and a donation of 50/. 
from Lady Elizabeth Hastings, a chapel was erected. In 1831 it 
needed so much extension that its removal was deemed preferable, 
and the materials were alienated for the formation of " The 
Independent Chapel," near Prospect-place. The structure which 
succeeded it was built in the same year, and affords an accommo- 
dation of 1200 sittings, of which 800, designated by labels, are 
"free." Under the provisions of the Act, 58 Geo. III., c. 45, a 
district parish has, very properly, been assigned to this church. 

Low Harrogate, which is three miles from its parish church, first 
obtained the benefit of a separate place of worship in 1824, when 
St. Mary's Church was erected, after much exertion, aided by the 
Commissioners of the Million Act. 

The inhabitants and visitors attached to the Romish faith, 
perform their devotions in the spacious chapel lately erected at 
Knaresbrough. 

The Dissenters have exhibited their wonted alacrity, in providing 
spiritual instruction for the strangers of their several persuasions. 
The new Wesleyan Chapel — for the old one, that had arisen so 
early as 1797, was abandoned to the purposes of " The Lounge" — 
will be found in Central Harrogate, and of capacity sufficient to 
accommodate 800 souls. The Independents erected a commodious 
structure in 1831, by the footpath leading to High Harrogate ; and 
the Quakers meet, during the Spa season, in the British School 
Room, in Central Harrogate. 

And now of the Waters themselves. In a publication like the 
present, intended for general circulation, it is of course unavailing 
to dissertate on the component parts and application of waters, of 
which it is sufficient for the majority that they drink " in faith, 
nothing doubting." The Chemist has had, already, the advantage 
of several careful and judicious observations and analyses ; and to 
those who are driven hither more by necessity than pleasure, I 
would recommend, in the words of Dr. French, that they apply 
themselves to some experienced Physician, who shall be able to 
understand their constitution, distemper, and the nature and use of 
the waters themselves ; that accordingly, as cause shall require, 
the more successful preparations may be administered, and the 
more efi"ectual directions given. 



102 HAEEOGATE. 



THE TEWIT WELL 



on the Common, to the east side of the Brunswick Hotel and near 
the Leeds and Harrogate road, has not only precedency of its com- 
panions, but of all similar waters in the county. Its history, 
which has been much garbled, is best conveyed in the original 
words of Dr. Dean's Spadacrene Anglica, published in 1 626. " It 
was discovered first," says he, "about fifty years ago, by one 
Mr. William Slingsby, who had travelled in Germany in his 
younger years, seen and been acquainted with theirs ; and as he 
was of an ancient family near the place, so he had fine parts, and 
was a capable judge. He lived sometime at a Grange house near 
it ; then removed to Bilton Park, where he spent the rest of his 
days. He, using this water yearly, found it exactly like the 
German spaw. He made several tryals of it, then walled it about 
and paved it in the bottom with two large stone flags, with a hole 
in their sides for the free access of the water, which springs up 
only at the bottom through a chink or cranny left on purpose. Its 
current is always nearly the same, and is about the quantity of the 
Sauvenir, to which Mr. Slingsby thought it preferable, being more 
brisk and lively, fuller of mineral spirits, of speedier operation : he 
found much benefit by it. Dr. Tim. Bright, about thirty years ago 
(1596), first gave it the name of ' The English Spaw.'' Having 
spent some time at those in Germany, he was a judge of both, and 
had so good an opinion of ours that he sent many patients hither 
yearly, and every summer drank the waters upon the place himself. 
And Dr. Anthony Hunter, late Physician of Newark-upon-Trent, 
often chided us Physicians in York for not writing upon it, and 
deservedly setting it upon the wings of fame." 

Though it has of late been indulged with the old cast-off dome 
from the Sulphur well, the memorable " English Spaw" still 
remains, after all the benefits it has conferred and all the praise it 
has received, in something like its pristine humility, and deserted, 
until lately, for those that have better advocates and a more com- 
modious position. For a trifling gratuity to the inmates of an 
adjacent cottage, the visitor may still enjoy the undiminished 
benefit that it offers, and test, in his own person, the truth of 
Dr. French's recommendation : that it occasions the retention of 
nothing that should be evacuated, and, by relaxation, evacuates 



HAEEOGATB. 103 

nothing that should be retained ; that it dries nothing but what 's 
too moist and flaccid, and heats nothing but what 's too cold, and 
e contra ; and that, " tho' no doubt there are some accidents and 
objections to the contrary," it makes the lean fat, the fat lean, 
cures the cholick, and melancholy, and the vapours ; and that — 
fair reader — it cures all aches speedily, and cheareth the heart. 



THE SWEET SPA. 

In 1631, only five years after Dr. Dean had set the Tewit well 
" on the wings of Fame," Dr. Stanhope discovered another Chaly- 
beate well, about a quarter of a mile from it, not far from the 
Plumpton and Wetherby road, and took " leave to advertise " the 
public of the same, in that now rare tract, styled " Cures without 
Care, or a summons to all such as find little or no help hy the tise 
of Phi/sick to repair to the Northern Spaw." It has the advantage 
of a more elevated and commanding situation than the Tewit well, 
which it has superseded, and is the chief Chalybeate water used at 
Hari'ogate. It seems to have acquired this distinction soon after 
its discovery ; for, in 1656, great pains were taken to form a square 
terrace, sixty yards on each side, vestiges of which still remain, 
and to protect the enclosure by a stone, which records, " All this 
ground, within these walkes, belonges to the Forist of Knares- 
brough. 1656. John Stevenson." In 1786, Alexander, Lord 
Loughbrough, who owned some property in the township, and was 
interested in the prosperity of Harrogate, generously erected a 
stone canopy over the spring, which was removed in 1842, when 
the present neat building was substituted. 



THE OLD SULPHUE WELLS. 

Though the Sulphur waters engaged attention in the early part 
of the seventeenth century, and were then used, both internally 
and externally, it seems doubtful whether the well, now so justly 
celebrated, was much resorted to until the concluding period of the 
Commonwealth, when Dr. George Neale, of Leeds, a benevolent 
and enlightened man, applied himself to the promotion of their 
use, and the advancement of their condition, with a spirit that 
deserves a lasting memorial at the hands even of this distant 



104 



HAEEOGATE. 



generation. In a posthumous paper that has been published by 
Dr. Short, he thus records the means by which thousands have 
been blessed : — " There are {circ. 1676), and were about twenty 
years ago, three springs close together, vert/ low and scarce of water, 
that all of them did not afford sufficient water for drinking and 
bathing. Wherefore, for the convenience of the drinkers, I thought 
it convenient to take up the uppermost spring, which is weakest 
and slowest of them, and made a large basin to contain several 
hogsheads of water, and covered it with a large stone to preserve it 
from the sun and rain water ; and for a tceek together we rammed 
its sides with clay to prevent other springs from getting in. The 
event answered expectation : for we had a fresh spring of much 
better and stronger water, which afforded as much in one hour now 
as it did in twenty-four before, more loaded with the minerals than 
ever, and so of greater efficacy for either bathing or drinking." It 




NEW PUMP ROOM, SULPHUR WELL. 



is a remarkable fact, in the impregnation of these waters, that the 
second spring, which has been generally covered up, is not half the 
strength of the first or chief well, though it is but a yard distant 
from it. The third, which is about 16ft. removed, though very- 
potent, contains, like the weak well, a trace of sulphate of soda, 
which the old well does not. Being open to the public like the 



HAKEOGATE. 



i05 



rest, it has been chiefly reserved for baths, and transmission to 
distant parts of the kingdom. To these three wells, an addition, 
very unwelcome at the time but very useful since, was made about 
a century ago, when a man, who, under the protection of a lease 
from the Earl of Burlington, had acquired a right of searching for 
minerals in the Forest of Knaresbrough, pretended to dig for coal, 
where the three sulphur wells are situate. From this attempt, the 
Innkeepers and others at Harrogate, who were interested in the 
preservation of the wells, persuaded him to desist by the payment 
of 100/. " Sulphur water, however," says the late Bishop of 
Llandaff, who records the story, " had risen up where he had begun 
to dig : they enclosed the place with a little stone edifice, and, 
putting down a basin, made a fourth well." 

In 1804 the principal well was distinguished by a large dome 
supported by pillars ; and thus it remained, with some minor 
improvements, until 1842 ; when, in justice to the importance of 
the Spa, and the proper and prudent conservation of its waters, the 
Commissioners, under the Harrogate Improvement Act, resolved to 
enclose the springs in a reasonable and efficient manner. An 
octagonal Pump Room, of ample dimension and appropriate deco- 
ration, was erected from the design of Mr. Shutt, a native of Har- 
rogate, and opened on the 23rd of July, in that year ; but that this 
laudable arrangement might not interfere with the means or inclina- 
tion of those who could or would not aiford a trifling gratuity to the 
attendant, a pump, available under restrictions consequent only on 
the preservation of the water, is placed without the walls. 

Analysis of the Contents of one gallon of the Sulphur Water : 



Solid Contents. 
Muriate of Soda 
Muriate of I^ime 
Muriate of Magnesia 
Bi-Carbonate of Soda 

Total 



Grs. 


902-4 


78-9 


35- 


15-4 


1031-7 



Gaseous Contents 
Sulphuretted Hydrogen 
Carbonic Acid 
Azote .... 
C'arburetted Hydrogen 

Total 



C. In. 
. 16-8 
. 51 
. 9-6 
. 4-98 

. 36-48 



THE MONTPELLIER OR CROWN SULPHUR WELL, 

about 200 yards east of the old wells, is private property, and 
appurtenant to the Crown Hotel. It was found in 1822, and is 
enclosed together with the Saline Chalybeate pump, connected with 
a spring at a small distance, in an octagonal apartment, in " the 
Chinese style." The public have the benefit of these powerful 



106 



HAKKOGATE. 



springs by a trifling subscription ; obtaining also thereby the gratifi- 
cation of walking in the adjoining Pleasure-ground. 

One gallon of this Sulphur Water has been found to contain 



Solid Contents. Grs. 

Muriate of Soda . . . 882' 

Muriate of Lime . . . 85-8 

Muriate of Magnesia . . 51-6 

Bi-Carbonate of Soda . . 17-7 

Total . . 1037-1 



Gaseous Contents. 
Sulphuretted Hydrogen 
Carbonic Acid . 
Azote .... 

Carburetted Hydrogen 

Total . 



39-36 



In the autumn of 1835 the proprietor of the Crown Inn sunk a 
well on his premises, 82 ft. from the old sulphur well, which was 
supposed to be thereby seriously injured. He was, consequently, 
indicted under the provisions of the Knaresbrough Forest Enclosure 
Act : but before the arguments were concluded, consented to sur- 
render the room which enclosed it to the use of the public, for 
whose use he was required also to put down a pump. The order 
of the Court, which was also made a rule of the Court of King's 
Bench, enjoined that " the room be opened to the public from six 
in the morning until six in the evening of each day, and that the 
defendant shall only use the pump and water in common with the 
rest of the public ; " though he was allowed to possess a key, apart 
from that used by the commissioners. He engaged also not to 
deepen any of the other wells on his premises. 



THE KNARESBROUGH, OR STARBECK SPA 

is situate midway between Harrogate and Knaresbrough, and about 
200 yards from the road-side. It obtained notice at an early period, 
and was one of the three sulphur springs which Dr. Dean, in 1626, 
considered " worthy of the Physician's observation." The subse- 
quent improvement of the wells at Low Harrogate superseded its 
benefits, which, elsewhere, would have been invaluable ; and, in 
1822, neglect and some degree of jealousy had so far combined, 
that its site was almost unknown. In that year the inhabitants of 
Knaresbrough did justice to the valuable gift committed to their 
charge, by erecting an appropriate building over it, with a suite of 
baths, and a residence for the attendant. Its quality seems particu- 
larly adapted to delicate constitutions, and it has afforded relief 
when stronger waters have failed. 



H AERO GATE. 



107 



Analysis of one gallon : 



Solid Contents. 


Grs. 


Gaseous Contents. 


C. In. 


Chloride of Sodium . 


122- 


Sulphuretted Hydrogen . 


5- 


Sulphate of Soda 


2-5 


Carbonic Acid . 


8-3 


Chloride of Calcium 


10- 


Azote . 


. 11-7 


Chloride of Magnesium . 


8'25 






Bi-Carbonate of Soda 


3- 







Total 



SALINE CHALYBEATE, OR ROYAL CHELTENHAM PUMP ROOM. 

The discovery of a water, which united the properties of a tonic, 
aperient, and alterative, was one of the greatest benefits that had 
occurred to Harrogate since the establishment of the old Sulphur 
well. It was found, together with the adjacent but disused Chaly- 
beate, by Mr. Oddy, in 1819, while searching for sulphur water to 
supply the baths ; and at the lower end of the little valley that has 
disclosed the chief wells of Low Harrogate. When the reputation 
of Harrogate became fixed on something more than the ephemeral 
attractions of a place of fashionable resort, the original pump-room 
was superseded by a spacious building, erected by the proprietor 
Mr. Williams, in 1835, in which the Doric style is applied to the 
exigencies of the case with taste and judgment. Not only the 
conservation of the water, but the amusement of its visitors is 
secured in this saloon, which is 100 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 27 
feet high ; for, it affords, besides a most comfortable and luxurious 
promenade, an agreeable resort for the perusal of the newspapers, 
and such current literature of the day as can be selected from a 
library of several hundred volumes. The enterprise, also, of the 
present manager aifords the frequent enjoyment of the first musical 
talent in the kingdom ; and other similar sources of refined pleasure. 
The appurtenant grounds are laid out with considerable efi'ect, and 
afi'ord — within limits more diversified than the site would induce 
many to suppose — a promenade of more than a mile in extent ; and, 
of comfort, to be estimated best by those who have been, elsewhere, 
driven to the highways for their imperative ambulation. A sheet 
of water, albeit neither delectably clear nor dangerously deep, 
completes, as yet, the result of a meritorious undertaking, which 
few, interested in the prosperity of Harrogate, will be disinclined 
to patronise. 



108 



HARROGATE. 



The constituent parts of a gallon of the Saline Chalybeate Water are 



Solid Content 
Oxide of Iron . 
Chloride of Sodium . 
Chloride of Calcium 
Chloride of Magnesium 

Total 



Grs. 

5-3 

576-5 

43-5 

9-65 

634-95 



Gaseous Contents. 
Carbonic Acid . 
Azote 



Total 



C. In. 
5-75 

7-75 



THE MONTPELLIER CHELTENHAM SPRING; 

was discovered, some years ago, in the Gardens of the Crown Hotel. 
It was not, generally, used, for some time after ; but is now 
supplied from a pump, adjoining that of the sulphuretted spring, 
previously noticed, A gallon exhibits 



Solid Contents. 


Grs. 


Gaseous Contents. 


C. In. 


Sulphate of Soda 


. 19-9 


Carbonic Acid 


. 18-5 


Muriate of Magnesia 


. 34-3 


Carburetted Hydrogen 


. 3-5 


Muriate of Lime 


. 174-7 


Azote 


8- 


Muriate of Soda 


. 645-6 






Carbonate of Soda 


6-4 






Oxide of Iron 


3-1 







Total 



. 30- 



WALKER'S STRONG SALINE SPRING 

was added to this unique assemblage of waters in 1783 ; when it 
was observed in the cellar of the Crescent Hotel, in the garden of 
which, a spring, called the Crescent old well, partaking of the 
nature of both chalybeate and sulphuretted waters, was found, about 
the same period. It is enclosed in a plain pump-room ; and con- 
sidered of importance in all cases when the Leamington waters are 
applicable. 

The solid contents of a gallon are found to be 

Grs. 

Chloride of Sodium 610- 

Chloride of Calcium 44-5 

Chloride of Magnesia 145 

Carbonate of Soda 53- 



Total 



772- 



The gases are Oxygen, Azote, and Carbonic Acid, but we have 
not been able to ascertain their volume or proportions. 

There are several other springs, both sulphuretted and chalybeate 
at Low Harrogate ; but none require particular observation here. 



HAEEOaATE. 



109 



HAELOW CAEE SPEINGS. 

The recent introduction of these wells to public notice has not 
only afforded a valuable remedy by which the sufferings of a large 
class of the Visitors to Harrogate may be more effectually mitigated, 
than by the use of any of the numerous collection already to be 
found there ; but, at the same time, an agreeable place of resort 
will be gained when seclusion is also necessary, or exercise can be 
induced or enhanced by scenes of rural beauty. 

Their situation is in Harlow Carr, one of those small but pic- 
turesque valleys that intersect this part of the country ; upwards of 
a mile from the Brunswick Hotel, and beyond the tower, on the 
road from Harrogate to Otley. A small rivulet runs not far from 
the wells, and afterwards contributes, in a series of pools and 
bubbling falls, in its rocky passage through the woods, to produce 
a pleasing and effective variety in this secluded sylvan retreat. 

There are several springs, both of Sulphur and Chalybeate water, 
in the grounds ; but three only of the former, and one of the latter 
quality, are used at present. The Analysis of a gallon of each, 
made by Mr. West of Leeds, in May, 1844, is as follows : — 



SULPHUR SPRING NO. 1. 



Solid Contents. 


Grs. 


Gaseous Contents. 


C.In. 


Muriate of Lime 


4-73 


Sulphuretted Hydrogen 


. 315 


Sulphate of Magnesia 


115 


Carbonic Acid 


. 6-05 


Carbonate of Magnesia 


6-93 


Nitrogen .... 


8-34 


Carbonate of Lime . 


5-88 






Carbonate of Soda 


1411 







Snlid Contents. 
Muriate of Lime 
Sulphate of Magnesia 
Carbonate of Magnesia 
Carbonate of Lime 
Carbonate of Soda 

Total 



Solid Contents. 
Muriate of Lime 
Sulphate of Magnesia 
Carbonate of Magnesia 
Carbonate of Lime 
Carbonate of Soda 

Total 



. 32.8 

SULPHUR SPRING NO. 2. 



Total 



Grs. 
8-85 
2-91 
8-48 
•12 
17-64 



Gaseous Contents. 
Sulphuretted Hydrogen 
Carbonic Acid 
Nitrogen 



Total 



SULPHUR SPRING NO. 3. 



Grs. 
4-77 
1-56 
8-23 
5-84 
12-9 



Gaseous Contents. 
Sulphuretted Hydrogen 
Carbonic Acid 
Nitrogen 



17-54 



C.In. 

. 2-8 
. 5-75 
. 7-97 



16-52 

C.In. 
. 2-92 
. 6-1 
. 7-98 



Total 



110 IIAREOGATE. 

CHALYBEATE SPRING. 

Solid Contents. Grs. 

Protoxide of Iron .... . 2'16 

Muriate of Lime 1'62 

Sulphate of Magnesia '77 

ulphate of Soda 1'65 

Carbonate of Lime 2-93 

Carbonate of Soda 1'27 

Total . , . 10-4 

Mr. West observes : The Sulphur " waters are extremely 
similar, and might for medicinal purposes be considered as the 
same. The similarity is much greater than is represented by the 
figures, the total of the lime and magnesia being nearly the same 
in each, though in somewhat different combinations. I suggest for 
them the name of the Harlow Sulphuretted Alkaline Springs." 

It will be at once perceived that the peculiar value of these 
sulphuretted springs consists in the total absence of Muriate of 
Soda, or common salt ; which, as it exists in the old sulphur water 
to the extent of 902 grains, and, in the Montpellier water, to 882 
grains in a gallon, neutralises, by its irritating quality — particularly 
in cutaneous cases — the beneficial effect that might otherwise 
ensue from their application. 

The Chalybeate water, of which the analysis is given above, is 
the strongest of that character at present discovered in the Carr. 
It rises from the hill side, a short distance from the sulphur 
springs, and is considered by Mr. West " to be of very desirable 
strength." 

The proprietor of this fortunate place, Mr. Wright, of Pannal, 
has recently done it justice by the erection of a substantial and 
comfortable Inn, designed in good Elizabethan character, which 
commands an agreeable prospect, and forms a pleasing object from 
several points in the grounds. A suite of ten Baths, either for hot 
or cold water, with two shower baths, have also been provided in a 
detached building near the wells, each side having a waiting-room 
and every other requisite convenience. 



THE BATHS. 

The benefit of an external application of the waters was per- 
ceived, and the absence of the means lamented, by Dr. Dean, in his 
tract of 1626. Dr. Neale — the great patron of Harrogate — intro- 



HARROGATE. Ill 

duced warm sulphuretted baths, " and procured one such vessel 
for a pattern as are used, beyond sea, for that purpose." To this 
primaeval provision — whose purgatory Smollett records in Hum- 
phrey Clinker — the inhabitants were content to subject their 
patrons, until Mr. Williams had the spirit to construct the Victoria 
Public Baths ; though, fettered by the terms on which he pur- 
chased the land for their site, he was obliged to place them within, 
instead of upon, the ground. The arrangement is nevertheless 
comfortable and commodious. 

Two years afterwards, Mr, Thackwray fitted up the Montpellier 
Public Baths ; and, by their luxurious and varied accommodation 
and peculiar adaption for invalids, completed all that this " useful 
branch of medical hygiene requires." 

The peculiarly mild quality of the Starbeck water has also been 
made available to those who are deterred from the Baths at Low 
Harrogate, by the erection there, in 1828, of suitable apartments, 
and the provision of respectable attendants. 

There is also another suite of Public Sulphur Baths in Chapel- 
street, of still less expense, but proportionate accommodation. 
The chief inns, and even a majority of the lodging-houses, afford 
also this convenience, to those who are unable or indisposed to visit 
the public establishments. 

A spring of the purest water, known by the name of St. Mungo's 
Well, but confounded, I apprehend, with the famous spring of old, 
supplies agreeable refreshment by swimming, shower, and other 
baths, at " The Cold Wells," by the road leading to Harlow Tower. 
It is supposed to be equivalent to the famed Ilkley well, and has 
been so much frequented that the proprietor found occasion, in 
1817, to enlarge and improve the accommodation. 

And lastly, it may not be irrelevant to remind those who have 
experienced the remedial effects of these waters, that their grati- 
tude may not find a more appropriate or beneficial course than by 
alleviating, through the medium of the Harrogate Bath Hospital, 
the sufferings of those unfortunate fellow-creatures, for whom 
Providence has provided a remedy, which their circumstances has 
not enabled them to apply. 



112 HAEEO&ATE. 



The accommodation afforded by the several Hotels — too well 
known to need enumeration here — is such as will cause no class of 
society to regret the appliances and comforts of their own homes. 
The " Queen " was erected first, and as early as 1687. For those 
whose constitution or disposition forbids public association, there is 
the choice of two highly respectable boarding-houses, and above one 
hundred and twenty lodging-houses — offering every grade and class 
of comfort and convenience. 



RECREATION. 

An abundance of recreation is afforded to those, who visit 
Harrogate, as a periodical relaxation from sedentary pursuits and 
engrossing avocations. The Race Course, laid out in 1793, favours 
equestrian exercise, and, occasionally, the amusement for which it 
was intended. There are Billiard Tables in all the principal 
Hotels, and two Public Rooms at Low Harrogate. I need remind 
none who remember Harrogate, of the attractive balls that are 
enjoyed at the Dragon, Granby, and Crown Hotels ; nor, of those 
excursions, by which many acquaintances that have .been acquired 
there, are renewed and improved. 

In unfavourable weather — and as a lounge while taking the 
adjacent sulphur water, or perusing the news and periodical litera- 
ture of the day — " The Victoria," better known as the " Promenade 
Rooms," a spacious apartment, 75 feet by 30 feet, offers an agreeable 
retirement. It was opened in 1805, and deserves patronage, 
especially from the elder visitors, if only from its pleasing associa- 
tions of by-gone days, and the gratification it afforded when most of 
the existing agremens of Harrogate were not. 

And, lastly, there is an infinity of amusement at the Tower on 
Harlow Hill, which, though of the altitude of 596 feet above the 
level of the sea, is easy of ascent. The elevation of the tower to 
the height of 100 feet gained a bewildering and most imposing pano- 
ramic prospect, which can be viewed by the aid of seven mounted 
telescopes. I have understood from those, whose optical capacities 
are more fortunate than my own, that the Peak in Derbyshire, and 
the tower of a church in Hull, may be seen in a clear atmosphere — 
though the latter is distant sixty miles ! 




BOLTON PEIOET. 



Now is there stillness in the vale, 
And long unsjreaking sorrow, 
Wharfe shall be to pitying hearts 
A name more sad than Yarrow. 

Wordsworth's Force of Prayer. 

URING a visitor's sojourn at Harrogate, one 
day, at least, must be spent at Bolton. I have 
appended, therefore, though beyond the limits 
assigned to my pages, the following brief notices, 
which may consequently be considered as sug- 
gestive, rather than descriptive, of objects to be seen or anticipated. 
In the year 1120, William de Meschines and Cecily his wife, the 
heiress of Robert de Romille, to whom William the Conqueror 




114 BOLTON PBIORT. 

granted vast possessions in Craven, founded at Embsay — two miles 
east of Skipton — a Priory for Austin Canons, to the honour of the 
Virgin Mary and St. Cuthbert. 

After the death of the founders, and in the year 1151, Alice, 
their elder daughter and coheiress, who retained her mother's name 
of Romille, and had married William Fitz-Duncan, nephew to 
David king of Scotland, is said, in a record which formerly 
belonged to the Priory, to have translated the foundation to 
Bolton. 

There is generally some wild legend connected with the origin 
of our monastic foundations ; and a tradition, that had not passed 
away in the middle of the seventeenth century, affirmed that this 
circumstance took place in consequence of " the Boy of Egremond," 
the only surviving son of the second foundress, having been 
drowned in attempting to cross the Strid, an unusually narrow 
part of the river Wharfe ; and that Bolton was selected as being 
the nearest eligible site to where the misfortune happened. 

This legend cannot, however, be implicitly received ; for, when 
Alice gave the Canons her manor of Bolton, in exchange for their 
manors of Skibdun and Stretton, her son William — and in a pedi- 
gree, exhibited to Parliament in 1315, he is set down as her only 
son — appears in the charter as a consenting party to the transac- 
tion. Dr. Whitaker conjectured, therefore, that it might refer to 
one of the sons of the first foundress, both of whom died young; 
but, I think it may be better reconciled with this stubborn piece 
of evidence, by supposing that the manor of Bolton had been 
exchanged, for the convenience of Alice, before the accident, and 
that, subsequently, the Canons were glad to find a pretext, in her 
disconsolate lamentation, for descending, from the cheerless heights 
of Embsay, to the warm and sheltered seclusion of their newly- 
acquired possession. 

But, whatever may have been the truth of this dim and faded 
story, we should rejoice that it lingered long enough to be revivified — 
phoenix-like — from its ashes, in the memorable lays of Rogers and 
of Wordsworth. 

After having existed upwards of four hundred years, the founda- 
tion was surrendered by Richard Moon, the prior, and fourteen of 
his brethren on the 26th of January, 1540. On the 3rd of April, 
1542, the site, with many of the possessions of the house, were 
granted to Henry Clifi'ord, first Earl of Cumberland, but nineteen 
days before his death, for the sum of 2490^. From him they 



BOLTON PEIOET. 115 

have descended to the present worthy owner, the Duke of 
Devonshire. 

" The ruins of this celebrated Priory stand upon a beautiful 
curvature of the Wharf, sufficiently elevated to protect it from 
inundation, and low enough for every purpose of picturesque 
effect ;" in which respect the competent judgment of Whitaker 
has pronounced that " it has no equal among the northern houses 
— perhaps not in the kingdom." Its site is so shut in by rising 
ground and embosomed in trees, that the visitor, who has come 
from Harrogate across " Knaresbrough forest," may not be aware 
that he is approaching it until he is almost on the spot. 

The bridge retains no vestige of that structure which was erected 
or rebuilt in 1314, nor of the Chapel that was attached to it for the 
benefit of passengers ; but the following inscription may yet be 
seen graven on an oaken beam in a cottage at the south-west angle, 
that most likely occupies its site : — 

STljoijj gat passgs bg gts tons one aue maria \)txt goto sag. 

There is a pleasant footpath from the bridge, across " the Town- 
field," to the abbey; but strangers, generally, proceed a few 
hundred yards further down the road, and enter the Abbey-close 
by an opening in the boundary -wall, which remains there in good 
preservation. 



BOLTON HALL. 

The gateway of the Priory is nearly opposite the west front of 
the church, and is a substantial work of the Perpendicular era, 
constructed with an idea of defence. As it had not been erected 
long before the dissolution, the arches were closed, and it was, 
soon after, fitted up as an occasional place of retirement for the 
Cliffords, or as a residence for one of their stewards. The house 
has recently been enlarged by the Duke of Devonshire, who occa- 
sionally retires here in the shooting season. It contains nothing of 
general interest except some curious pictures, chiefly family por- 
traits, which visitors are allowed to inspect. 

Outside the hall windo.v are placed several curious Early- 
English bosses, which, I apprehend, have been removed from the 
passage leading from the Court to the Chapter-house of the Priory. 



i2 



116 BOLTON PKIOKT. 



HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE PRIORY. 

The shell of the Priory Church remains entire, and the nave is 
still used as a parochial chapel. It exhibits all the styles of archi- 
tecture that prevailed from the period of its foundation to that of 
its dissolution ; and some of them in a degree of excellence that 
has not often been surpassed. The choir was evidently the first 
work of the Canons, after, or, more probably, a little prior to, their 
translation from Embsay ; and from thence the work proceeded 
westward — a considerable time having apparently elapsed before 
they brought it to a conclusion. 

The domestic buildings were, probably, built in the intermediate 
period between the erection of the choir and the nave ; and after, 
or nearly contemporary with, the completion of the church may 
have been the erection of the Chapter-house, and the introduction 
of the Sedilia in the choir. 

But the Canons were not long content with the structure of their 
church. We are not, directly, informed at what period they 
resumed operations ; but, as the Compotus of the Priory from 1290 
to 1325 contains no payments on that account, we have this con- 
firmation of existing architectural evidence, that it was soon after 
the latter period that the old choir was deemed incompatible with 
the condition of their house, and that a structure, exhibiting the 
more elegant forms of the decorated style, was substituted on its 
foundation. Except a portion of the inner wall, as high as the 
base of the windows, and fragments at the junction with the tower, 
the whole of this part of the church was rebuilt at this period. 
The south transept was also then, apparently, renewed from the 
foundation, and ramified windows introduced into the opposite 
member of the cross aisle. So great, indeed, was their disposition 
for improvement that they rebuilt the aisle of the nave, and added 
a parapet and battlements to the clerestory above. 

After the lapse of nearly two centuries, the spirit of renovation 
again moved the house, and while Richard Moon — a native of the 
adjacent village of Hazlewood — was Prior. In 1520 he began to 
erect a tower at the west end of the church, after a florid and 
ambitious design ; but the days of monachism were numbered, and 
the rude hands of Henry were laid upon him, ere the work had 
risen above the nave. 



BOLTON PBIOET. 117 



SURVEY OP THE PRIORY. 



The first part of the Priory that attracts the notice of a stranger 
is this Tower. The exterior exhibits great originality of design ; 
but internally, the sectional outline of the arch by which it should 
have communicated with the nave is of ver)' insufficient projection. 
The arms of Clifford and those of the Priory, derived from the 
bearing of the Earls of Albemarle, are introduced in the spandrils 
of the doorway. The mouldings of the niches above, after making 
the heads, expand into the resemblance of embattled turrets — thus 
betraying a tendency, in the decoration of the work, at least, to the 
cinque-cento vitiation. A frieze above presents the inscription by 
which alone Moon has retained the credit of the work : 

En tf)c gcr of oiar lorii m'otxx. 3^. ^ brgaun tljcs foijntiacl)on on qiui^o 
soial goi Ijauc marcc. amm. 

On the first stage of the south-west buttress stands a figure in a 
cap and gown reaching to his knees, holding a short staff in his 
right hand and a round shield under his left arm, a cross-flory 
being embossed on his breast. Whitaker considered that it repre- 
sented a pilgrim with his staff and slouched hat ; but it may be 
doubted whether one of those champions by whom wager of battle 
was conducted was not intended. 

The West Front of the nave exhibits a deeply-recessed door- 
way, surmounted by three lancet-lights, and enriched with a series 
of arcades, true to the still lingering spirit of the old Lombard 
works, but detailed, of course, in the Early-English style. 

The South Side of the nave is earlier than the north. At its 
western end we see indications of the roof and wall of the Dormi- 
tory ; and of the Store-houses, or whatever might be the buildings 
below. From the point of junction of these buildings with the 
nave, its south side is decorated with a pointed arcade on cylin- 
drical shafts — exhibiting a good example of the transition from the 
Norman to the Early-English style. Above this arcade may be 
observed the corbels and groove by which the penthouse roof of the 
Cloister has been supported. At the east end of it has been a 
doorway communicating with the church, and a stoup, exquisitely 
foliated in undulating lines, like the boss over the western door. 



118 BOLTOK PEIOKT. 

On viewing the Interior, it will be found that the six fine 
lancet lights of the south side of the nave occupy the space of three 
opposite arches, and are made, by two shallow pilasters, into three 
corresponding compartments. These coupled lights — the first 
approach to a ramified window — are divided in height by a plain 
and original transom. Some fragments of the coeval Stained Glass 
remain in them, the principal pattern being a red quatre-foil, — 
enclosing a mascle, — placed between two vertical borders. The 
triforium, or gallery from the Dormitory of the Canons to the 
church, crossed the base of these windows ; the passage still 
remaining by which they entered and left the nave. 

The opposite side of the nave is divided from its aisle by one 
cylindrical column placed between two of octagonal form. Above 
these are four single and plain lancet lights, based on a ponderous 
string course. On the outside, they are not divided by buttresses, 
but connected by a dog-toothed string-course passing over the 
heads, with an elegant and characteristic foliated boss at the point 
of springing. 

The North and only Aisle of the Nave has been renewed 
from the ground in the Decorated period, and is economically rather 
than unskilfully plain. It has three windows, with tracery of 
elegant design, and a deeply-moulded doorway towards the west 
end, surmounted by a trefoil-headed niche. 

Of the Stained Glass, with which these windows appear to have 
been finished, there is left, only, in the tracery, fragments of a 
ruby border, enriched with cinquefoils and fleurs-de-lis ; some red 
roses ; and the heads of two kings, which, though evidently coeval 
with the stone-work, and characteristic of the period, were inadver- 
tently supposed by Dr. Whitaker to have been " a compliment to 
the unhappy monarch for whom two of the Cliffords successively 
fought and died." 

The space of one arch at the east end of this aisle is enclosed by 
a wooden lattice, in the Perpendicular style, except that part which 
abuts on the pier of the tower, where there is a low wall. This 
was a Chantry Chapel, founded, no doubt, soon after the transla- 
tion of the house by one of its chief benefactors, the Mauleverers 
of Beamsley ; and retains that character by an altar stone, now 
prostrate on the floor, and the piscina — a plain semicircular-headed 
recess, — of which the basin has been partially destroyed. At the 
east end are eight large rough stones, above 7 feet long, laid side 
by side, and risen above the floor about 20 inches. These cover 



BOLTON PRIOET. 119 

the Vault of the Claphams, of Beamsley, who, according to tradi- 
tion, were interred there upright ; but though we may " look 
down" through the " chink in the fractured floor," we shall miss 
"the griesly sight," which, if it ever existed materially, I am sorry 
to say has long since disappeared. 

" Pass, pass who will, yon chantry door, 
And, through the chink in the fractured floor 
Look down and see a griesly sight ; 
A Vault where the bodies are buried upright ; 
There face by face, and hand by hand, 
The Claphams and the Mauleverers stand; 
And, in his place among son and sire, 
Is John de Clapham, that fierce Esquire, 
A valiant man, and a man of dread 
In the ruthless wars of the White and Red ; 
Who dragged Earl Pembroke from Banbury Church, 
And smote ofif his head on the stones of the porch." 

At the opposite side of the nave was another altar ; the Piscina 
— a plain round arch and square basin — remaining. 

The wooden Screen, which divided the nave from the transept, 
has been removed, since the dissolution, the space of one arch 
from the western pier of the central tower. It is a plain specimen 
of Tudor open-work, surmounted by a heavy cornice of quatrefoils ; 
of which, nevertheless, Prior Moon need not lose the credit. 

He may be thanked also for the Roof, a good specimen of 
carpentry, painted, like many coeval works, with broad lines of 
vermilion. The beams rest on figures of angels, one of which 
holds a staff like that exhibited by the statue in the tower, and 
stands on a crescent or moon ; evidently an allusion to the Prior. 
The cornice is painted in panels, with flowers and heads much 
faded ; and three sculptured bosses of similar design adorn the 
centre beam. One of these is sagely conjectured, by the country 
people, to represent the devil ; and certainly the great enemy of 
mankind can have little cause to rejoice at the comparison. 

When the nave was retained, after the dissolution, as a place of 
worship, a wall was raised under the arch by which it communi- 
cated with the central tower, and two windows were inserted in it. 
The upper part, which was merely of lath and plaster, was com- 
pleted in masonry by Mr. Carr, the late amiable and respected 
incumbent of Bolton, who, after a faithful discharge of his duty 
for fifty-four years, died in 1843, and rests immediately below, 
among scenes and objects he had loved in life, and tended and 
appreciated so well. 



120 BOLTON PEIOET. 

We must now leave the nave, and, in the usual routine, pass to 
the Central Tower. This structure might, originally, have been 
raised the height of its square above the roofs ; but the arches alone 
now remain. They are of unequal width : that of the choir being 
28 feet and very obtuse ; that of the transept but 18 feet, and, 
consequently, elegant and acute. 

It is probable, from the progressive character exhibited in the 
tower, that the South Transept was, originally, erected before the 
other. It was afterwards rebuilt, but is now totally rased, except 
the west wall, which retains two very beautiful decorated windows, 
and a doorway, of like character, leading to the Cloister-court. 
When this transept was cleared of rubbish, several years ago, a 
floor of plain tiles was found, nearly perfect, but depressed by the 
lapse of graves ; and, towards the north-west corner, a curious, but 
worn sepulchral memorial of grit stone. It bears a rudely-incised 
figure of an Austin Monk, with his hands joined in the attitude of 
prayer, and this brief record : 

l^ic jacct ti'n's Jpofrr MioO quo'lJ'm P'or. 

by which the tenant of this lonely tomb is identified as Christopher 
Wood, the eighteenth Prior of the house, who resigned his office 
on the 10th of July, 1483. 

The North Transept is perfect, except the eastern wall of the 
aisle, which is entirely demolished. It is divided from this part 
by two chamfered arches, rising from an octagonal pillar, with a 
boldly moulded capital. Except this work, and perhaps the inner 
half of the other walls, the whole transept may have been rebuilt 
in the Decorated period. At all events, a large ramified window 
was then inserted in the north wall ; two in the west ; and two, 
with ungraceful triangular heads, but very good tracery, over the 
arches on the east side. 

The side aisle, which was divided from the transept by a wooden 
lattice as high as the cajjital of the column, communicates with the 
choir by its original semicircular arch ; and near its side remains 
an equally uninteresting piscina — a mere round-headed recess, like 
those in the nave. 

The Choir. — Except a portion of the interior of the lateral walls, 
and fragments attached to the piers of the tower, this interesting 
part of the structure displays that scientific beauty which has 
vindicated the Decorated style as the perfection of Gothic architec- 
ture. It has neither aisles nor triforium, but each side is occupied 



BOLTON PEIOET. 121 

by five tall lights, all now, but one, divested of their exquisite 
tracery. In the east window a few fine flowing fragments still 
cling to the arch. 

The internal effect of the choir is considerably improved, if not 
in classical, certainly in picturesque effect, by an arcade of semi- 
circular but intersecting arches, which are continued from its 
junction with the aisles of the transept to the steps of the altar. 
They are in two tiers — the western series of nine arches on each 
side being elevated a little above the other. To amend the irregu- 
larity as well as to harmonise this decoration — which the rebuilders 
in the fourteenth century took some pains to retain — with the 
general effect of the choir, these skilful and ingenious men inserted 
a bold and flowing trefoil cornice above the lower range, which 
brought it level with the base moulding of their windows and the 
crown of the upper arcade. The mouldings of the archivolt, as 
well as the capitals of the shafts, are of good character, and the 
latter are ingeniously diversified. 

Beyond this arcade, in the north wall, is an arched Rf.cess, about 
9 inches deep, 9 feet 6 inches in height and width, and flanked by 
two paneled shafts. It is difficult to say whether this work, which 
was respected by the rebuilders of the choir, though mde and ungeo- 
metrical in the curvature of the arch, has been originally intended 
for a tomb for the Paschal play of the Resurrection, or for a real 
interment. It may, indeed, ultimately, have served both purposes; 
for the plinth, which is continued round the back from the bases of 
the shafts, retains traces of grout- work, which has been super- 
induced on it, to the height of 2 feet 6 inches, if not half-way up the 
recess. Whitaker says a skeleton was once found beneath the 
arch, and part of a filleting of brass, with the Longobardic letters 
NEVi ; from which he presumed it might pertain to Lady Margaret 
Neville, whose funeral is mentioned in the Bursar's account of 
1318. 

Not far from hence is laid the corner of a blue marble Slab, 
which is said to have been found in the rubbish, near the arch ; 
but which may be considered to be a fragment of the tomb of John 
Lord Clifford, K.G., who was slain at Meux, 10 Henry V., and, 
according to the Chronicle of Kirkstall, was brought home and 
interred at Bolton. A corresponding fragment, now laid on the 
opposite side of the choir, is, I believe, the stone which Whitaker 
observed in the wall of an out-house at Bolton. 

A little westward is a large sepulchral slab, much shattered, 



122 BOLTON PMORT. 

which has borne an elaborate memorial or effigy in brass, with a 
circumscription. It probably covers one of the later Priors, for the 
outline of a pastoral staff may, apparently, be traced on it. 

In their usual position on the south side of the choir are the 
remains of four Sedilia and a Piscina of Early-English character, 
much mutilated ; though, when Johnston saw them in 1670, they 
remained in tolerable perfection. Little more, however, is now 
left than the bases of the stalls, enriched with a trefoil panel, 
enclosed in a triangle, alternately reversed in the design. A small 
portion of three of the niches alone is left, though sufficient to 
show that the work has been covered with armorial shields, placed 
in a perpendicular series, double on the back, but single on the 
sides ; the intermediate space being adorned with the rose, which 
was introduced in the stalls of the Chapter-house, and many Early- 
English works. As the relief is very slight, the charges of the few 
remaining shields are totally obliterated. The description of what 
Johnston observed is recorded in the History of Craven ; but it 
seems to afford no decisive evidence as to the period of their erec- 
tion, unless the appearance of the shield of Castile and Leon is 
required to carry back the style beyond the close of the thirteenth 
century. 

On the south side of the choir were two Chapels, which 
extended half its length, and were coeval with its original construc- 
tion. As the roofs rested on corbels placed in the wall of the 
church, the portion of it below was suffered to remain when the 
choir was rebuilt ; though, from the appearance at the angle of the 
adjoining transept, the outer wall of the chapel was then renewed. 
The dedication of the western chapel, which has been entered from 
the transept, is forgotten. The other has, unquestionably, been 
" the last resting-place of the Lords of Skipton, and patrons of 
Bolton." It communicates with the choir by a doorway, rebuilt 
together with it, and a contiguous arch, which, having been left in 
a rude state at its original erection, was then also decorated in the 
inner surface with blank tracery ; and assimilated further with the 
character of the choir, by the addition of a triangular canopy, of 
which the outline and finial remain. Under the arch, I doubt not, 
was laid the effigy of the " Lady Romille," which Johnston saw in 
1670, but which is now entirely lost; and, in the recess in the wall 
below, I feel equally confident, were deposited the remains of that 
great patroness of the house, when called to her everlasting reward. 

We shall now complete our survey of the ruins most effectually 



BOLTON PRIORY. 123 

by turning to the Quadrangular Court, of which the boundary on 
the north side is marked by the wall of the nave. On the west 
was a range of lofty buildings, the lower apartment being, I pre- 
sume, the Store-house ; the upper, the Dormitory of the Canons. 
Of the Refectory on the south, sufficient remains only to show 
that it has been a spacious apartment ; and, from its shallow 
buttresses, coeval with the translation of the house. At its eastern 
end has been a wide passage, leading to a much larger Court 
behind ; around which, and about the site of the present minister's 
house, were ranged the Kitchens to the west, some unappropriated 
offices to the south, and a long chamber, not improbably the Guest's 
Hall, to the east. Still beyond this court is a small detached 
building, now used as a School-house, and proved by the flat and 
shallow buttresses to have been of an age little inferior to the 
refoundation. 

The east side of the Cloister-Court is formed by the transept of 
the church, and at its southern extremity is the passage leading to 
the Chapter-house. The entrance from the Cloister was rebuilt in 
the decorated period, but the arch alone remains — a bold and 
conspicuous object, mantled with ivy, and emulating nature in the 
foliated capitals of its columns. There is an exquisite glimpse, to 
be had through it, of the waterfall above the river in one direction, 
and of Bolton Hall in the other. 

The passage has been worthy of the building to which it led, and 
was of the same age and style. From some fragments of shafts, 
which adhere to the wall, the sides appear to have been enriched 
by an arcade, and, — if I am right in my assignation of the bosses 
that remain before the windows of the hall, — to have had also a 
handsome and groined roof. 

The site of the Chapter-house has been discovered only within 
recollection, but — having been torn down nearly to the foundation 
— is even yet sought in vain, by many an unpractised eye. It was 
an octagonal building, in the Early-English style, of about 30 feet in 
diameter, the west side having been entirely voided by the passage. 
There have been, apparently, five stalls on each side, resting on a 
base of quatrefoils, and ornamented at each angle with three roses 
of exactly similar character to those exhibited in the sedilia of the 
choir. 

On the south side of the Chapter-house passage, are foundations 
supposed to have been those of the Prior's Lodge. Another de- 
molished structure at the south-east angle is considered to have 



124 BOLTON PEIOET. 

been his chapel. Still eastward of the Chapter-house are swelling 
mounds, indicative of an enclosure ; and of two buildings, which 
Whitaker thought might have been the Priory Mill, If the site 
had been more propitious, I could have believed them to have been 
the lodgings of the Prior. 

But we may not linger here ; for the banks and braes of Wharfe 
now begin to develope their attractions, and the summer's sun will 
set ere one half of them can be enjoyed. 

Yet, hard and unenviable is the heart that turns away from Bolton 
Church-yard, without a sigh for Emily Norton — 

" Exalted Emily, 
Maid of the blasted family" — 

or glances not at the track, up the woods and o'er the fell, by which 
the memorable White Doe of Rylstone, after the death of her 
mistress, sought this hallowed sanctuary, each Sabbath morning, and 
returned again, on the dispersion of the congregation. 

After some charming views of the Priory, particularly one 
including the curvature of the Wharfe, made familiar by pictorial 
illustration, the path sinks to the bed of the valley, and enters 
the woods. 

Although visitors are permitted to ramble, at pleasure, through 
the woods, except on Sunday, when ingress is strictly prohibited, 
the great diversity of paths renders it advisable to avail themselves 
of a guide, without whose direction many interesting points of view 
must pass unobserved. 

" About half a mile above Bolton the valley closes, and on each 
side the Wharf is overhung by deep and solemn woods, from which 
huge perpendicular masses of grit-stone jut out at intervals." For 
a while, the river sweeps on in majestic undulations, exasperated 
by rocks and swelled by a tributary stream bursting from a woody 
glen, exhibiting " its native character — lively, impetuous, and 
irregular." 

Then for a few moments it reposes by a delicious and verdant 
holm ; lingering noiselessly in the shade of luxuriant trees, whose 
slanting boughs stoop to kiss its bosom. 

At length its subdued and solemn roar, " like the voice of the 
angry spirit of the waters," disturbs the deep solitude of the woods, 
and announces the tremendous Strid, which suddenly greets the 
eye, struggling and foaming in a narrow trench in the rock, through 
which the whole of the impetuous torrent is poured " with a rapidity 
proportioned to its confinement." 



BOLTOK PRIOET, 



125 



Hither, says the shadowy tradition that, for seven centuries, has 
invested this awful spot with a mysterious interest, came the Boy 




of Egremond, only son of Alice de Romille, Lady of Skipton, 
ranging the woods of Bolton with his greyhounds and huntsman ; 
and attempted to cross the gulph. 

" He sprang in glee, — for what cared he 
That the river was strong, and the rocks were steep ? 
But the greyhound in the leash hung back, 
And checked him in his leap. 
The Boy is in the arms of Wharf, 
And strangled by a merciless force ; 
For never more was young Romilly seen 
Till he rose a lifeless corse." 

The forester hastened to Lady Alice, and, with despair in his 
countenance, intimated misfortune by the significant enquiry, 



126 BOLTON PIIIOET. 

" What is good for a bootless beane ? " by which we may under- 
stand, What remains when prayer is unavailing ? Yet it was 
enough ; for the presentiment of the anxious mother instantly 
rejoined, " Endless sorrow ;" and, on being assured that such was 
her lot, she vowed that many a poor man's son should be her heir, 
and so became the second foundress of Bolton, 

The language of this question — now become all but unintelligible 
— proves the antiquity of the story, which is the next thing to esta- 
blishing its truth ; and, alas, on how many a bright and beautiful 
dream, has its meaning since intruded ! 

After all, " no one can stand long by it, without feeling a sense 
of its power and savage grandeur grow upon him;" and many, 
inspirited by its majestic tone, may feel that it is a place "how 
tempting to bestride." But its real contraction, which I am told is 
4 feet 5 inches, deceives the eye ; and there is the greater danger that, 
in the confusion of insecurity, the attrition of the rocks may betray 
the bounding step, which — like many another erring but needless 
act — can never more be recalled. 

The contraction of the rock extends about sixty yards ; and, 
"being incapable of receiving the winter floods, has formed, on 
either side, a broad strand of naked gritstone, full of rock basins 
or pots of the lin, which bear witness to the impetuosity of so many 
northern torrents." 

By following the main path — sometimes skirting, sometimes 
rising high above the river bank — you wind up the curvature of 
the valley, and at a sheltered bower called Pembroke Seat, instinc- 
tively halt, to contemplate the glorious prospect of the torrent 
sweeping, in an " horned flood," far down before you, from the 
old tower of Barden, shrouded in ancient woods and backed by the 
purple distance of Thorpe-fell. 

Beyond this point, the excursion of those whose time is limited 
is seldom protracted ; but no true lover of nature, or of those asso- 
ciations of by -gone days by which it is enhanced, should refrain, 
undismayed by the apparent distance, from passing on through 
Barden Park, to the Tower. It is indeed but a plain Tudor house, 
enlarged or rebuilt by Henry Cliiford, "the Shepherd Lord," from 
one of the Lodges by which the ancient Chace of Barden was pro- 
tected ; but the scenery around is so exquisitely beautiful — the air 
of primaeval simplicity so pure and refreshing — and the profound 
seclusion and tranquillity so congenial to the sympathies of the 
imagination and of the heart, that it needed neither the association 



BOLTON PBIOET. 127 

of the virtues, or of the fame of its founder, nor the lays of 
him by whom they have been sung so worthily and well, to 
invest its crumbling walls with another and an indestructible 
enchantment. 

The tower was repaired in 1658, by Lady Pembroke, after it had 
been in ruins about seventy years, but it is abandoned once more to 
desolation. The chapel, a small and coeval building, attached to 
the adjoining farm-house, is still preserved, and served by the 
minister of Bolton. 

After you have passed the tower and reached the high road, turn 
aside down the footpath to Gill-beck fall — a mountain stream 
dashing down a precipice of forty feet to meet the VVharfe — but 
return to the picturesque old bridge, to be greeted by the broad 
sylvan-bounded stream, and Greenhow hill rising in the distance. 

At the foot of the bridge it will be well to pass to the opposite 
side of the river by which you came, and then along the holm ; not 
forgetting often to turn and catch the varying glimpses of Barden, 
nestling in its dense sylvan repose. 

For the gratification which follows, every lover of beauty must 
be grateful to Mr. Carr, who, " working," as Wordsworth has said, 
" with an invisible hand of art in the very spirit of nature," guided 
the path along the hill-side, and " laid open the more interesting 
points, by judicious thinnings in the woods." From one of these 
stations, there is a lovely view of the river, towards Barden, and, a 
little further on, another, in the opposite direction towards the 
Strid, where the extreme contraction of the valley, at that inter- 
esting point, may be, very definitely, observed. At length, we are 
brought, immediately, above the raging torrent, and, while the eye 
rises from the depth and luxuriance of the valley, to the green 
knolls and dreary fells swelling beyond, the ear is charmed by that 
hoarse roar of " the angry spirit of the waters," that, for unnumbered 
ages, has never been subdued nor stilled. 

Before the Laund House, on the site of one of the Lodges of 
Barden, it is worth while to turn aside to an "unwedgable and 
gnarled oak" that may have successively sheltered Romille and 
Albemarle, Clifford, and Boyle. It is 25 feet 4 inches in girth, at 
4 feet 6 inches from the ground, for the tortuosity of the trunk 
prevents its measurement lower. 

It needs no persuasion to allure the most careless step towards 
Posforth-gill — a woody glen that now branches from the vale of 
Wharfe, implying in its antiquated name the character of its lively 



128 BOLTON" PBIOET. 

stream. Far down below our path, we are accompanied by the 
rich, deep umber-coloured but sparkling and translucent beck; 
sometimes eddying in deep shady pools, then, with renewed force 
bursting forth and tossing down its rocky bed, fringed and canopied 
by the mountain ashes that sometimes fill the bosom of the gill with 
their elegant and graceful luxuriance. After an enchanting prospect 
down the glen, to which it will be hard to say farewell, the path 
declines towards " the Valley of Desolation," and crosses Posforth- 
beck in front of its finest fall, where it is poured in two main 
streams from the height of 54 feet, with a force that dashes up the 
spray more than 15 yards. It then ascends the upper or high park, 
and continues outside the pale — a judicious arrangement, by which 
the repetition of Posforth-gill, however intrinsically interesting, is 
avoided, and you gain, from the superior elevation, views of the 
fells on the opposite side of Wharfdale. After crossing an angle 
of the lower park, you regain the woody banks of the Wharfe, where 
you can have the last and not least interesting view of Barden ; 
and, on descending to the holm, pass over the wooden bridge to 
the path by which you set out. 

If you did not approach the Priory by the path through the fields, 
you may return by that way, to see the Priory Barn, which is still 
occupied ; and as a singular specimen of ancient carpentry, deserves 
attentive examination. But, if that should be no attraction, then, 
at least, climb the Holm-d^rrace to enjoy the last and most delicious 
prospect of the lovely scene from which you are now quickly 
departing ; and to stand — 

• not only with the sense 



Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts 
That in that moment there is life and food 
For future years. 

And now, patient companion, — young or old, learned or unlettered, 
fair or unfavoured, — with whom, alike unseen and unheard, I have 
traversed these beauteous and diversified scenes, and mused on the 
legends of the past, I quit my pleasing occupation; sufficiently 
happy, if I have, for one hour, induced their juster appreciation, or 
awakened, more sensibly, in thy breast, the patriotic sentiment of 
the chronicler of old : 

(SEngclonlic is a iucl goti lontir, E inrnc of cdjc lontij best. 



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